Holly,

 Some thoughts on dehydrated breast milk.



1. Folks have been trying to freeze dry human milk for decades, maybe a century or more. Without reliable success!



2. When you buy dried milk in the grocery store, it is fat free. Great for adults, and even kids on an occasional basis. Not great for newborns.



3. My understanding is that part of the technical difficulty is that freeze drying fat is a problem. Fat is oily and moist and doesn’t lend itself to freeze drying and reconstituting.



4. If scientists have been working on this unsuccessfully for as long as they have, I also have grave concerns about the safety of doing so in your home kitchen. New technologies and methods need to be tested carefully, especially when the intended recipients are a vulnerable population.



5. There are issues of safety and effectiveness, which are not the same thing. Effectiveness has to do with the nutrients (Calories, macro nutrients, micro nutrients, growth factors, immune factors) and what the baby is getting when milk is freeze dried and reconstituted. Safety is about what pathogens might be in the milk after such processing and mixing with water, what do we already know about it, what we still need to learn and how moms doing this at home measure those things.



I’m hoping that Lactnetters with a science background can address the scientific information and perspective.



Naomi





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Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.

Executive Director

Mothers' Milk Bank Northeast



Immediate Past President

Human Milk Banking Association of North America



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direct line: 617-340-3600

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@MMBNorthEast

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