<<Dr. Jack said< "If giardia gets into the milk, it has to get
into the blood.  I have never heard of giardia in the blood.  You
would then expect lesions in any organ, which I also have not heard
of.  The situation is *not* the same as toxoplasmosis, since you *do*
get lesions in many organs with toxoplasmosis."

Thanks for clearing this up for me.  I find this interesting (mostly
because I bf my current nursling (who is 3 1/2 now) after I was diagnosed
with Giardia a couple of yrs ago.  My regular doctor (family practice) was
on maternity leave so I took my daughter to a pediatrician that looked at
her stool under a microscope (in the office).  He told me that she had
Giardia, and asked me to also bring in a stool specimen.  He also said that
I had Giardia.  I did not know much about Giardia but panicked and had our
well tested by the health dept. (it was fine).  I also took stool specimens
from all family members (including myself and my daughter's) to an
independent lab.  The lab found NO Giardia.  We did not fill the
prescription that the pedi. gave us, and there were no further problems.
BTW, nobody asked us for a blood sample either to test for Giardia :)

I am still curious though if Giardia can be spread by improper hand
washing.  If there are studies that show Giardia in breastmilk (I did NOT
say this, just repeating the quote from Lawrence)--is it possible that it
could be from contamination (like the mom that pumped the milk did not wash
her hands before touching her breast)??  Could baby also be infected by
this route (mom not washing her hands before feeds)??  Please be patient
with my lack of knowledge about this infection--as I mentioned before, I do
not possess a medical background and really have not found out much
information on transmission routes....
                                Pam Holland, BS, IBCLC
                                WIC BF Coord., Savannah, GA