Alert the risk of buying breast milk online
We are in the age of Internet and new technologies. Internet purchases have become the order of the day, to such an extent that we can find hundreds of products on the web that were unthinkable until a few years ago. However, not everything should be sold in this way: The Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEPED) warns of the risk of buying breast milk online.
Although in Spain this practice is still not very common, it is quite common in others, such as in the United States, where there is an emerging market in which many mothers do not breastfeed their children but do want to offer them the benefits of breast milk, using the internet to get it.
Risks to the health of the baby
In this regard, the Breastfeeding Committee of AEPED warns that to use mother's milk without any control supposes a high risk for the health of the baby, since for breast milk to be safe and of quality it must follow guidelines before being commercialized.
According to these experts, the guidelines that this milk must follow are the same as those used in milk banks: selection of donors, hygienic extraction, use of suitable containers, transport that respects the cold chain, microbiological cultures and pasteurization, etc.
In essence, "to guarantee safety and quality, a careful management of breast milk is required as a biological product with potential risk of contamination and transmission of infectious diseases", they assure from the association, remembering that the fulfillment of all these requirements is" hardly verifiable in the online sale ".
Contaminated breast milk
In addition to the risk of transmission of infections through the consumption of this breast milk purchased over the Internet, another risk is added: that the baby is taking contaminated or adulterated milk.
This has been shown in a study published in April 2015 in the journal Pediatrics, in which they analyzed a hundred samples of allegedly maternal milk purchased over the Internet and found that 11 percent they were contaminated with cow's milk.
Not only were they contaminated, but several of them had "an amount high enough to rule out accidental contamination, suggesting that cow's milk had been added intentionally," they say from the AEPED.
Therefore, these experts are categorical: "Mother's milk on the internet is far from being an ideal alternative" so they discourage buying this product online and, much less, give it to the baby, and call attention to the need to regulate this business that does not stop growing.
Angela R. Bonachera
