Jay, I agree with you, and have admitted it here before. I don't think reusing a bottle of breastmilk within a few hours is a big deal, but am anxiously looking forward to research validation. On 12-31-97 there was a post from Rachel Brusseau who is doing a study on this and reported on her preliminary study with 3 women, doing colony counts for 48 hours on refrigerated vs. partially drunk out of a bottle milk. <<In all three participants the bacteria counts consistently DECREASED over time in both the usd and control milk. The used milk counts were slightly higher. . .>> Here is her reply from last week when I wrote to ask what was happening with the research: <<Funny you write me now!! I'm just getting ready now to go make plates, because this weekend I am doing "the big study". Over christmas I did a pilot study with three women. I only did total colony counts on the milk. This next week I am doing "the big study" in which I will look at pathogenic staff, ß-streptococcus, coliforms and total colony counts in milk. The women are pumping the milk in their homes 12 - 36 hours before the study. They will store it in their refrigerator. They will bring the milk to my lab, we will heat it up, and feed part of it to the babies. I will then store the milk for another 48 hours taking samples every 12 hours for bacterial analysis. I'm getting really excited to see the results!! I have to write my rough draft by March 23, and a final paper by April 3rd. I will present the results to my peers on April 4th. I promise I will keep LACTNET people posted, and hopefully I can get published, so others will know as well!!! Thanks for your interest, because it helps me stay focused on the importance of my work. Rachel>> I am looking forward to her reporting in! Becky Krumwiede, RN, IBCLC, Appleton, Wisconsin [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]