Dear Friends:
    The study with bacterial counts was  interesting.
    I wonder if the real value of this study, where  infants didn't get sick, 
is to show that the food in my refrigerator is safe. 
    Seriously, I wouldn't want anyone to culture the  leftovers from five 
nights ago; I ate them yesterday for lunch and am  totally fine.
    I wonder if our emphasis on germ-free is excessive.  I was in the 
hospital yesterday and wondered: where to all those gloves that  people use go? Into 
some landfill where they will sit for thousands of years?  What good is it to 
keep my hands covered in plastic when the earth will be full  of more germs 
and non-natural substances than it is meant to handle?
    But on the other hand, there are some pretty nasty  (and relatively new) 
bugs now: C. Difficile and MRSA to name but a few. Except  that they weren't a 
problem when I started in healthcare, 30+ years ago. No one  had even heard 
of them. Is it possible that all of our efforts to thwart germs  aren't as 
effective as we'd like?
    And we also have so many immunocompromised people now,  more than when I 
started my career!
    What to do?
    warmly,
 
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
Maternal-Child Adjunct  Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human  Lactation
www.breastfeedingalwaysbest.com

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