Hello everyone,
  I am doing some thinking and writing on how we view breast milk in this
society. My sense is that we view it as a bodily fluid rather than as a food.
That is why it is perfectly ok to pump in the stall of a public bathroom etc.
Here are my questions:
  1. Does anyone know th epublic health regulations in their cities or
states or provinces regarding how breast milk must be handled. for example,
here in Mass. it cannot be stored in a fridge with other foods or medications,
as far as I know.  Nurses who feed newborns pumped breast milk must wear
protective gloves. Those are the kinds of regulations I'm looking for.
  2. There are lots of movies and TV shows these days which show babyboomers
having babies. IN some of those shows breastfeeding comes up, like when
someone inadvertantly puts breastmilk in their coffee and then spits it out
in disgust when they find out that's what it is (I guess breast milk is more
offensive than cow udder milk!) Does anyone remember seeing any such scenes
and which shows or movies they were.
  3. I have looked in sociasl science and medical abstracts for articles on
breast milk as something "taboo" and have come up empty. thin
does anyone know of any references talking about these issues in this way?
Perhaps some of the anthropologists in the crowd.
  thanks for all your help.
  Please answer by personal e-mail as I am still nomail from lactnet.
  thanks, Naomi Bar-Yam [log in to unmask]
P.S. thank you all for your help with all my questions about thrush and iron
regarding our newborn. After  trying several suggestions for the thrush
problem, I asked a dermatologist friend about it.  After describibg the symptomshe questioned whether it was thrush at all, especially since the nystatin
hadn't helped at all and neither of us was experiencing any discomfort.
He suggested that we discontinue the meds and see what happened. That was
several weeks ago and so far, so good.
  As far as the iron problem, he wasborderline (10.4 or 10.9) low iron
about 2 months ago. we decided to hold off on iron supplements. If he is
still low when we bring him in for his 4 month check in a week or so then
we will probably give him the supplements for a bit.
  Thanks again for all of your help and wisdom.
  Naomi