Erin posts to ask whether anyone knows of a fungal infection that causes
vascular changes in the nipple during pumping (see her post just before this
one). This sounds like classic Raynaud's phenomenon, and yeow, it must be
PAINFUL for the woman! 
I see Raynaud's often in women who have had painful soreness over more than
a week or two. Women with thrush on their nipples have a lot of pain.  So do
women with cracked nipples from mechanical trauma, and cracks predispose to
bacterial infection. So, infection may go hand in hand with Raynaud's.
I have never ever heard of anyone being advised to discard her milk because
of Raynaud's.  I have also never advised anyone with infected cracked
nipples to discard her milk, unless she has such a huge oversupply that she
has no more room to store it and her baby can't drink it all.  There are
almost no infectious processes in the breast that render the milk unsuitable
for consumption by the child. Before she acts on this wildly radical advice,
she should read up on Raynaud's, and she should get the name of the
purported organism which her clinician believes is in her milk and could be
harmful to the child who drinks it, so she can check for herself.

Sounds like she could use some help learning a less painful way to express,
perhaps a different pump, and she might want to request a prescription for
nifedipine from her health care provider. Maybe she should be in the market
for a new one of those too.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome