Barb (and others have) said,

<< Pumped milk should not be stored and saved for later use when the Mom
 and baby have thrush, however it is OK to continue to feed the baby.  So
 this mother should pump for that day's use by the baby, but not add any
 extra to her freezer supply.  Better to pump and dump than to risk
 reinfection later.  Also, some of her recently pumped milk that is now
 in storage and probably contains candida should be discarded, too. >>

Question for all you wise people:  Is this evidence based practice, or are we
guessing that giving this milk later will cause a reinfection?  Does anyone
have anything to back up this assertion -- which has been made many times on
Lactnet, so I'm not picking on Barb.  What is the grounds for pumping and
dumping the milk?

I think sometimes we do something (like pump and dump) because we've heard
that freezing doesn't kill the candida albicans.  But, the question is, DOES
IT REINFECT THE BABY?  That's like making a policy to wash nipples with
phisoderm before bf a preterm infant because it decreases the bacteria on the
nipple.  True, but the real question is whether or not washing the nipples
DECREASED morbidity and mortality in the infants.

So, I'm not quibbling about whether or not the thrush is killed/inactivated by
freezing.  My question is, what are the chances the baby will be reinfected by
using the milk?

I have a non-scientific, anectodal, "n" of one mother that pumped & froze her
milk when she had thrush, used it later, and the baby was fine.

Question again for you all:  sometimes the baby will have thrush (and so will
the mom) long before clinical symptoms are evident.  If mom has, for example,
been pumping and storing milk for work and ends up with thrush, how far back
does she have to dump the milk before she finds some that is candida free?

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC
curious in Wheaton.