Our Patient Ed Committee is trying to rewrite our guidelines on how parents
should pack frozen EBM for transport from home to the NICU.  We used the
HMBANA book as a basis for our new policy.  Many of our families are very
low income and may not have a car at all, much less a car with air
conditioning.  We live in the S.W. desert and it's 105+ here every day in
the summer.  Our guides include a styrofoam cooler chest with lots of wadded
newspapers or small towels to take up the remaining air space.  Ice in
plastic bags if their trip is short, less than 30 minutes.  Preferably Blue
Ice, especially if the trip is longer than 30 min.  Often, we have to
explain what Blue Ice is and where to find it.  We explain how ice is warner
than frozen EBM and Blue Ice is colder so it offers better protection.

At times, we have seen some parents packing their frozen EBM with a tray of
ice in a zip lock plastic bag and arriving with a dripping bag of water &
defrosted EBM.

The Pt.Ed.Com. wants to add the use of dry ice to our transport guidelines.
I don't recall the HMBANA guidebook saying anything about dry ice, but it's
in my office and I'm at home right now.  Can I have comments from anyone who
knows the benefits or hazards of packing dry ice with gradufeeds or
volufeeds of frozen EBM?  Note that all our patient ed directives must be
written in English and Spanish - on a 4th grade reading level.

Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC
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