Mary Lou writes " Our breastfeeding mother's have been expressing their
milk into the sterile water bottles provided to our unit by Mead Johnson
and/or Ross Laboratories".  Now both companies are putting a stop to use of
their product for breastmilk. This issue is everywhere it seems.  I was
trying to find another collection container last year when we found out
that the sterile specimen containers we used, were not food grade.  We had
used them for years before that.  If you check the archives (I brought this
up earily this year) you'll find many responded to this issue, but as far
as I can see the only solution is getting a budget to cover the costs.  I
have looked at the Medela 80ml container (I think they said the price had
come down) and considered recycling and autoclaving for reuse, or having
the mom's use a sterile microwave bag to reuse them.  Either way it is a
cost that most units are not able to add to their budgets. And patient
billing is not going to cover any more that is added.  I also looked at the
Pumpmate system and it has posibilities for short term storage, but
probably not for VLBW premies. Again a cost factor. These bags are nice,
but I only have one study that shows their value,  done by the company
itself.  My neonatologist would like to see more studies that would tell
more about short term storage. He is not interested in doing our own study
at this point. Most of the previous studies were done awhile back and were
mostly for milk banks and longer term use.  It will be interesting to see
what company besides Medela picks up on our dilemmia and presents another
product. I would also be interested in how the members of this group are
planning to procede.  I am currently putting together a cost analysis of
the available in my institution has come up with a solution.

Pamela Edenfield MSN,RNC,CNS,CLC,IBCLC
Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist
Lactation Consultant
Youngstown, Ohio

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