Debbie asks:

> We advise mothers not to keep pumped milk during a thrush infection.
> However, we all know that breastmilk is liquid gold, so would pasteurizing
> the milk (bring it to scalding level) kill the thrush?  Obviously, boiling
> would be better, as far as killing the thrush, but it would probably turn
> the
> milk also.  My guess is that the answer is still NO because thrush survives
> freezing temps, why wouldn't it survive scalding?  Just curious about what
> my
> colleagues might think about this one...
>
We've discussed this before here, but I think it is a topic well worth
pursuing again.  A point of curiosity -- lets say a mom has been pumping and
has a nice stash of milk in the freezer when she/baby is diagnosed w/ yeast.
How much of the frozen milk do you tell her to throw out?  Remember that the
yeast was there before she was aware of it.  Or do you tell her to pitch
frozen milk?  One day?  Two?  A week's worth?

Why are we telling mothers to dump the milk?  As far as I can tell from the
literature there is ONE study from a microbiology journal that noted there
was yeast in pumped milk.  Are we concerned that the baby will not get over
the yeast infection if he/she drinks pumped milk that has yeast in it? Or
will get thrush if he drinks milk w/ yeast in it?   Do we have any evidence
that this will happen?  If  any of us eat a yeast roll, drink wine or grape
juice, eat cheese or a myriad of other things -- do we get thrush?   Do we
tell a mother to stop breastfeeding if her baby has thrush?  The milk has
yeast in it.....  What if she has a yeast infection of the nipples/breasts
and the baby doesn't have thrush.  Do we tell her to stop breastfeeding
because the baby might get thrush from the yeast in the milk?

The point I'm trying to make is, does anyone know of a good study that
demonstrates that we need to dump milk that has been pumped when mom has a
yeast infection?  Not one that says the milk has yeast in it, but one that
says the baby will become infected with thrush if they drink the milk.  And
if there are no studies available, why are we dumping expressed milk?

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC, RLC
Wheaton, Illinois
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com

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