Polly writes:

<Interesting aside...when I was in 8th grade I won the top honors with my
Science Fair project.... which was slides of un-pasteurized cow's milk.
I was so frustrated at the time, that it took a really long time for it
to spoil, but once it did....the process was quick to progress.  I had
wanted to have a slide of milk at one hour, milk at 2 hours, etc.
Instead I had to wait til the next day (as I recall) to find any
bacterial growth.  So I changed my project to show milk at 1 day, 2
days, 3 days, etc.>

Reminds me of over 30 years ago when I was trying to develop protocols
for 
pumped milk for use in our NICU. I enlisted the help of the head of our 
bacteriology lab. With a little simple "home-grown, informal research" I
was trying to 
figure out (remember, this was long before any research was in print)
whether 
it was necessary to have the moms wash off the breast in advance of
pumping 
to lower the germ count in the milk. We sampled moms with immediate
pre-wash
with water on a clean washcloth, and with ordinary daily cleansing and
bra pads 
changed p.r.n..

The milk was refrigerated after the initial culturing, then recultured at
24 and 48 hours. 
The bacteriologist was surprised to discover that there were fewer germs
at 24 hours 
than there had been in the fresh specimen, and fewer still at 48 hours.
He was 
non-plussed, and said that "he wouldn't know what to do with that
information".

That was before there was much evidence-based information demanded, so
sooner
or later, we got the protocol up and running before I moved to public
health in 1976.

Jean
**********************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, OH USA 

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