Thanks for responding to my query, Maggie. I hope your son is healthy now.

>I have nothing but anecdotal reasons for clinical use but here goes.
>
>My middle child had intestinal mal-absorption problems when he was 6 weeks 
>old. He was hospitalized and I was ordered to pump instead of breast feed. 
>After 2 days more of weight loss the MD wanted me to stop pumping and  start
>giving him ABM that was fortified for higher calories. My LLLL and 
>also a  nurse
>at this hospital(God Bless you Jane) suggested that they do a  creamatocrit of
>my milk to detemine the actual caloric content of my milk. The  analysis found
>that my body was actually producing milk that had a higher  caloric content
>than the fortified formula!


Well.....I can understand why this result turned out to be useful in 
this situation, but

i) ordering ABM instead of breastmilk in this situation is clinically 
*highly* questionable, surely
ii) the sample of milk expressed may have shown up as being lower in 
calories - you were lucky it didn't!  A test like this might have 
backfired.

In any case, a sample of milk can only ever offer a snapshot in terms 
of quantity and in terms of its fat content - and it only measures 
what comes out of the mother, not what goes into the baby.

Testing breastmilk in order to placate the concerns of medics and 
others who don't understand or trust the process is, lets say, a 
risky business.

>
>The second time a creamatocrit was taken of breast milk was  (unfortunately
>same child) when my son had cancer. I was lucky enough to  have a 
>donor Mom who
>was willing to pump for my son. After his surgery he was  unable to keep
>anything down except breast milk. The head nurse in the hot unit  ( 
>a nursing mom
>herself) recognized the 'special milk' we were giving him and  did an analysis
>of the milk as a way to 'justify' the use if anyone asked. No  one did and
>our son left the unit 5 days before anyone expected him too.


This worked out well for you, Maggie, but anyone who would be against 
the use of donor milk in this situation might have had other concerns 
than the fat content of the donation.

>
>Both analysis were done for the benefit of our family. I realize that these 
>are isolated instances but the possible uses for creamatocrits as one of  the
>clinical instruments used by professionals seems evident to  me.

Not to me....and I am still waiting evidence that it can be of any 
use in situations where correct understanding and trust of the 
process and the product of breastfeeding are apparent. To use it 
where this understanding and trust are not present risks backfiring.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc,  tutor, UK

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