For the sake of the Archives, I am reposting this paragraph (with a few
changes for readability) from my previous posting (Bloody stools, colic
and ulcers: A Case Study   Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997).

A great teaching visual aid for BF classes, to demonstrate the presence
of white blood cells (leukocytes) in breastmilk, would be to simply dip
a urine labstick into some EBM.
The reagent area will turn purple, demonstrating the presence of the
White Blood cells.

When I had need to test gastric aspirate (for the presence of blood, or
heme) for a baby recently, the labstick was negative for everything else
*Except* it was wildly positive for leukocytes. I had another nurse
verify the heme findings with me, and she noticed the dark
purple patch for positive leukocytes. She asked, "How come he's got
white cells in his stomach!?!"  For a moment, I, too, was at a loss, and
then the flash came - "Because he's on expressed breast milk and there
are white cells in the breast milk." "Oh...of course!"  Since the
aspirate I obtained was basically clear saline, this also (unofficially)
demonstrates that some white blood cells remain behind in the stomach
even after the feeding has "gone down."

I still think that's neat.    :-D

Katharine West, BSN, MPH
Sherman Oaks, CA