Re Marie Davis' post:

>tells me that pump parts should be rinsed in cold water first, she says the
>protein coagulates on the surfaces. (anyone else heard of this?)

Heat emulsifies protein, so just as you would always wash out blood, eggs
or milk from clothing with cold water so should anything else with protein
on it be washed first with cold water.  I tell all my clients to rinse the
milk off their equipment with cold water so they don't get a film which
makes it hard to clean, then wash with hot soapy water to remove the oils,
then boil once a day.
>
>Our hospital requires that our LC's use gloves if they are going to come in
>contact with body fluids, including saliva and breastmilk. (Finger cots for
>an oral assessment do not protect the entire hand so says our infection
>control nurse) Both my partner and I find that a single tight fitting latex
>glove works well. I have also taken to wearing my glasses during consults
>because I was accedently sprayed in the eye by a mom with an strong MER, and
>I was at least 3 ft from her.
>
I guess in hospital where you really could come in contact with high risk
for infectious disease clients, gloves might be warranted. Although by the
time you come to help a Mom with breastfeeding I would imagine her risk
factor should be known in most cases.

My clientele in private practice tends to be healthy and low-risk and I
really don't want to convey to my parents that breastmilk is something to
be afraid of.  A couple of years ago I had a Mom with a pre-term just home
who still needed some supplementing.  The mom had frozen her milk in
Playtex bags so I cautioned her to make sure the milk was good before
gin=ving it to the baby.  She wanted to know how she could tell so I told
her to taste it.  Both parents looked at me very uncertainly, as if they
thought I was kidding and they really weren't about to do it.  So I tasted
the milk, and offered it to them to try which they both did.  I was quite
sure the Mom was healthy and so was her baby so I really wasn't concerned.

Sometimes I think we're all getting a little too paranoid about HIV.  If
Iwas working with drug- users it would be a different story but my
clientele tends to be well-educated, upper socio-economic, well-motivated
and healthy.  I hope that situation does not change significantly while
I'm still in practice in Canada.

OK!  I'm waiting for the arrows.  I know I'm going to get yelled at on
this one!

--
******Joan M. Fisher, RN, BN, MEd, IBCLC******
***********Ottawa, Ontario, Canada************
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