A Dutch hospital has introduced this practice, but they don't have research to back it up: 

http://www.zorgvoorborstvoeding.nl/files/GoedGevoed_9-1.pdf 
page 3 

Rough translation: 
Mouth care in premature infants 

In our hospital we treat smudgy eyes with a drop of mothers milk. Most people won't be 
surprised; the antiseptical properties of mothers milk have long been known. We have recently 
introduced mouth care in premature infants that don't drink themselves yet, with mothers milk 
(from the own mother of course). 

Rather than water on a gauze to clean the moth and vaseline for the lips, we now put drops of mothers 
milk to the volume of 1 cc (0.03 fluid ounces) in a syringe and drop this very slowly in the side of the 
moth, on the tongue and the lips of the baby. Most of the time the parents do this themselves. Untill 
now we haven't seen any adverse effects, but the baby's seem to enjoy it... 
Maybe this can inspire other hospitals or perhaps there are hospitals that have the time and money to 
doe scientific research into the sense and safety of this method. 

Original article by Lenie Helmich, lactation consultant of the Röpcke Zweers Hospital, Hardenberg, the 
Netherlands 

Heleen 


On 29 Apr 2008 at 13:24, julie taylor wrote: 

> Our NICU are trying to find studies that back up their use of colostrum to clean the mouths 
of infants. I cannot find any studies conducted on humans. 
> Does anyone have experience of this? 
> Thank you. 
> Julie Taylor 
Heleen Hayes
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hhayes


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