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More on professionals’ attitudes on blood-tinged milk: a survey from Italy

Journal of Perinatology volume 32, pages 243–244 (2012)Cite this article

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We read with interest the only available papers on blood-tinged milk by Phelps et al.1, 2 Although benefits of human milk (HM) to both healthy and high-risk infants are well known,3 it is a common belief that blood-tinged milk may worsen gastrointestinal tolerance and, possibly, lead to unnecessary investigations for gastrointestinal bleeding or necrotizing enterocolitis. In their first work, Phelps et al.1 showed that the amount of blood necessary to tinge milk is very little, with a ratio of 1:10 000 between parts of red blood cells and milk to tinge it faintly pink, a ratio of 1:1000 to tinge it pink and of 1:100 to tinge it red. They showed that 75% of neonatal intensive care unit professionals from 18 hospitals in the western United States would discard milk if pink, raising to 98% if red. The most frequently cited reasons were fear of feeding intolerance and of unnecessary investigations for gastrointestinal bleeding or necrotizing enterocolitis. One year later, the same group2 published a series of 11 patients who were fed blood-tinged milk (including red milk) without any harm.

We decided to replicate Phelps’ survey on this common issue and investigated the attitudes of Italian professionals during a meeting on human lactation. The audience included neonatologists, paediatricians, neonatal intensive care unit nurses, midwifes, lactation consultants and nutritionists.

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References

  1. Phelps MM, Bedard WS, Henry E, Christensen SS, Gardner RW, Karp T et al. Attitudes of NICU professionals regarding feeding blood-tinged colostrum or milk. J Perinatol 2009; 29: 119–123.

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  2. Phelps MM, Baer VL, Christensen RD . Feeding blood-tinged expressed mother′s milk in the NICU. J Perinatol 2010; 30: 368–369.

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  3. Schanler RJ . Mother's own milk, donor human milk, and preterm formulas in the feeding of extremely premature infants. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2007; 45: S175–S177.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neonatology, Institute of Maternal and Child Health IRCCS ‘Burlo Garofolo’, Trieste, Italy

    J Bua, L Travan, R Davanzo & S Demarini

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  1. J Bua
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  2. L Travan
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  3. R Davanzo
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  4. S Demarini
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Correspondence to J Bua.

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Bua, J., Travan, L., Davanzo, R. et al. More on professionals’ attitudes on blood-tinged milk: a survey from Italy. J Perinatol 32, 243–244 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2011.84

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