>>Mother was given both varicela and rubella vaccines on 11-26 and told not
to breastfeed for 1mo.<<
WHY were vaccines given? why should she not breastfeed? why not give the
vaccine to the mother anyway and let the mother make antibodies and pass
them on through her milk? If Americans are buying cows so that tehy can
inject the cow with humen pathogens, then harvest and drink the colostrum
(yes, it is happening, and some people swear by it, and it has been used to
protect infats vs. rotavirus among other things) why aren't we using
breastmilk immunisation as well? I'll say no more because Jack will be
exploding about this...

>>A NICU nurse heard about a recommendation that premies be given milk pumped
at the same time of day at which they're being fed<<
Mmm, they are now going to produce formula based on the 6am and 6pm
milking, in Spring and autumn, and match that for prems born in those
seasons to be fed at those times as well... I haven't laughed so much for a
long time. Who dreams up these things? Is it all a nursing control freak
somewhere who is constantly saying, how can we make breastmilk feeding more
complicated and difficult today?
Even if there's some study that shows this is optimal (I know of none) we
live in the real world, and all women's milk expressed any time or any way,
is better than any vegetable or animal concoction. Any gains would be
minimal compared tot the losses involved in this sort of matching. (Like,
we have no 10pm milk, formula is easier, let's use that.) Not that day old
breastmilk has any problems: maybe even marginally easier to digest with
more free fatty acids than freshly expressed, and less contamination, since
they zap bugs. (Better than week-old heat-damaged physically altered cows
milk any day.)
Maureen

Maureen Minchin, IBCLC
5 St, George's Rd., Armadale Vic 3143 Australia
tel/fax after March 1: 61.3.95094929 or 95000648