Would you feed your baby someone else's BM?

[Anonymous]

If I knew the woman well, I would accept breastmilk. Thankfully I'm not in that position; if anything, I overproduce. I have looked into donating my milk but I can't because I'm on thyroid medication and milk banks won't accept milk from women on most kinds of medication. If you are considering getting milk from a bank, they do seem to have very strict standards and screenings, so I wouldn't worry about safety issues.

[Anonymous]

Agree that drinking cow milk puss is gross... but your later comment that a woman not breast feed with a mastitis is incorrect. With my mastitis, my doctor said the best thing to do was to breastfeed. And i did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that drinking cow milk puss is gross... but your later comment that a woman not breast feed with a mastitis is incorrect. With my mastitis, my doctor said the best thing to do was to breastfeed. And i did.

I've had it too, but I was not leaking puss and blood. If there were the case, I would pump and dump. I'm sure it would be OK for the baby to have, but I would chose to refrain until the puss problem at least cleared up.

I don't think if a woman were donating her milk or giving it to someone else would give milk that had some puss from infection (I certainly would NOT).

[Anonymous]

I definitely would but through a milk bank where the EBM has been irradiated to kill any infectious agents. The milk banks do the screening of the moms as well.

It's liquid gold- I cried when I once had to dump at an airport three days of milk.


Did anyone read the news report this past summer from the earthquake struck region of China? A woman police officer nursed multiple babies until their moms were located.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yuck- NO WAY

I agree. Revolting. God knows what other women put into their bodies, what diseases they carry, and what they're passing along to my infant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a ton of BM in my freezer that I won't use. I pump more in a day than my baby needs (she only drinks 1 bottle, I nurse her the rest of the time). Let me know if she is still interested and I can give her some.

If she doesn't need it, check out this Yahoo group: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MilkShare/
I've donated to a mother in need through this group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that it is so acceptable to drink milk from cows, but not to share BM from someone you know?

Uhh...For starters...it's pasteurized, homogenized, and approved to be sold/consumed by humans by the FDA (not to have melanine in it). Should I go on?

[Anonymous]

Wasn't there a topic not a few months back where a mom was livid that a daycare worker may have given her child someone else's BM?

So, why are we rehashing the same debate over again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drink milk that has been pasteurized and is subject to FDA guidelines. Breast milk has no safeguards.

I drink raw milk. I am a part of a cow share and that's how I can legally drink raw milk. It is not disgusting or unsafe. Personally pasturized milk allows for very sloppy husbandry. Did you know that the FDA "guidelines" allow for puss from lactating cows (who have mastitis infections) to be left in the milk? You are still drinking puss, but its been pasturized. Yummy! The US has the highest upper limit in comparison to developed nations for puss allowance in our drinking milk.

I am sure a mom who has a severe mastitis infection who is lactating puss along with her milk is not breast feeding ANYONE until that is taken care of, but not our dairy cows, they keep pumping away!

Are you from CA?

[Anonymous]

Well, I suppose wet nurses back in the "olden days" were successful. Then again, society has come a long way since then (for better or for worse).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't there a topic not a few months back where a mom was livid that a daycare worker may have given her child someone else's BM?

So, why are we rehashing the same debate over again?

What's so interesting is that about half (or more) of the posters told that mom it was definitely no big deal and to chill out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drink milk that has been pasteurized and is subject to FDA guidelines. Breast milk has no safeguards.

I drink raw milk. I am a part of a cow share and that's how I can legally drink raw milk. It is not disgusting or unsafe. Personally pasturized milk allows for very sloppy husbandry. Did you know that the FDA "guidelines" allow for puss from lactating cows (who have mastitis infections) to be left in the milk? You are still drinking puss, but its been pasturized. Yummy! The US has the highest upper limit in comparison to developed nations for puss allowance in our drinking milk.

I am sure a mom who has a severe mastitis infection who is lactating puss along with her milk is not breast feeding ANYONE until that is taken care of, but not our dairy cows, they keep pumping away!

Are you from CA?

No VA, born and raised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a close relative who was breastfed (directly) by his aunt on occasion when his mother was really tired. We all found it a bit weird, but who are we to judge? I know people donate BM, but not much about who uses it. Worth looking into, I think.

This used to be the norm - if a woman was unable to breastfeed or ill or indisposed for some reason, some other woman in her community would feed her baby. My grandmother did it for her best friend.

That's what wet nurses did before. I guess it depends on the source of the bm, in terms of the health of the surrogate, her eating habits, and health in general.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a close relative who was breastfed (directly) by his aunt on occasion when his mother was really tired. We all found it a bit weird, but who are we to judge? I know people donate BM, but not much about who uses it. Worth looking into, I think.

This used to be the norm - if a woman was unable to breastfeed or ill or indisposed for some reason, some other woman in her community would feed her baby. My grandmother did it for her best friend.

That's what wet nurses did before. I guess it depends on the source of the bm, in terms of the health of the surrogate, her eating habits, and health in general.

It happens in THIS country in different ethnic groups. These babies are not coming down with HIV and other such illnesses from breast milk.

This topic is a silly hypothetical. If I could not produce my own milk, I would go to forumula. If I had a premie and I could not produce milk, I would find a doaner for the critical time. I could not keep up with it anyways, it's very expensive to nourish your baby with someone else's breastmilk.

[Anonymous]

I take the milk from a friend in a heartbeat and be eternally grateful.