I've been asked by our hospital's LC to post this question to the list.
I've searched the archives for information on green colostrum and came up
with no matches.  Found some previous posts on green milk that were
helpful.  However, this mother has taken no herbals, eaten no green
vegetables recently, no iron or vitamin supplements, no soft drinks, no
infectious disease process going on with her.  Here's the situation:

Mom is 2 days PP, infant has DX of R/O sepsis, presently reciving NG feeds.
 Mom is expressing her milk.  Her colostrum is an olive green color.  The
night nurse threw the milk away because she though it was unacceptable for
feeding to the baby : (  The nursing staff showed the milk to the baby's
pediatrician (a usually staunch BF advocate) who thought it was *gastric
aspirate*.  He told the staff, "Oh, I wouldn't feed that to the baby".
Changed his mind though when our LC walked in.  "Why are you asking me
about this-she's the breastfeeding expert!"  Our LC proceeded to say that
she believes that the color is just a variation of normal and the milk is
probably fine.  So glad the mom didn't hear this conversation in the
nursery.

Colostrum is usually a golden yellow color.  I'm just theorizing here, but
if you add something blue to the diet (like a sports drink), could it
possibly turn her milk this olive green color?  The silly thing is that if
the baby weren't ill and were to have received this milk directly from the
breast in the first place, no one would have ever known...

A rainbow of breastmilk colors-something publishable, perhaps? Any thoughts
on this one?  Please post to the list as we are obviously not the only ones
who have run across this situation before.

Maurenne Griese, RNC(Certified in Inpatient Obstetric Nursing), BSNursing,
CCE(Certified Childbirth Educator), CBE(Certified Breastfeeding Educator)
Birth and Breastfeeding Resources
Manhattan, KS  USA
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