Donated breast milk stored in banks versus breast milk purchased online.

QUESTION

One of my patients asked if she could buy human milk on the Internet to feed her infant if the need arose. Is using donated breast milk from the milk bank safer than buying it online?

ANSWER

The World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend the use of donated breast milk as the first alternative when maternal milk is not available, but the Canadian Paediatric Society does not endorse the sharing of unprocessed human milk. Human breast milk stored in milk banks differs from donor breast milk available via the Internet owing to its rigorous donor-selection process, frequent quality assurance inspections, regulated transport process, and pasteurization in accordance with food preparation guidelines set out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Most samples purchased online contain Gram-negative bacteria or have a total aerobic bacteria count of more than 10(4) colony-forming units per millilitre; they also exhibit higher mean total aerobic bacteria counts, total Gram-negative bacteria counts, coliform bacteria counts, and Staphylococcus spp counts than milk bank samples do. Growth of most bacteria species is associated with the number of days in transit, which suggests poor collection, storage, or shipping practices for milk purchased online.