Mom demands HIV test after baby drinks another mom’s breast milk

If a child has been mistakenly fed another child's bottle of expressed breast milk, the possible exposure to HIV or other infectious diseases should be treated just as if an accidental exposure to other body fluids had occurred.

New mum Tyler Treasure just wanted to get back into the swing of things and get rid of her baby weight, but when she couldn’t find someone to take care of her four-month-old baby, she decided to bring him with her to the gym.

She left baby Hunter in the care of the staff, said an ABC report, with explicit instructions to call her should he grow hungry and begin to fuss.

After her workout, she returned to find her son feeding from an unfamiliar bottle with breastmilk that wasn’t hers.

READ: Signs and symptoms of HIV in children you may be missing

Realising the error in their ways, the staff apologised, but the damage had already been done.

Tyler wasn’t satisfied with the apology; she wanted her baby, and the mother from whom the breastmilk came, to be tested for HIV and other infections; she just wanted to make sure that her baby didn’t accidentally ingest drugs or alcohol in his system.

The CDC says that transmission of the HIV virus and hepatitis through breastfeeding is low, because the chemicals in breastmilk and the temperatures outside the host act together to destroy the virus.

Also, transmission of HIV from a single breast milk exposure has never been documented.

Regardless, CDC says that if a child has been mistakenly fed another child’s bottle of expressed breast milk, the possible exposure to HIV or other infectious diseases should be treated just as if an accidental exposure to other body fluids had occurred.

This is because babies’ immune systems aren’t yet fully developed, and they are prone to bacterial infections and viruses.

Of course, mothers are naturally overprotective of their babies, and no one can really blame Tyler for demanding that tests be done: parents are iffy about their children being exposed to substances of unknown origins.

Particularly with breastmilk, because breastfeeding is such an intimate thing between a mother and her child, and knowing that the milk your baby is drinking came from a woman you don’t know is simply unsettling.

If you have any insights, questions or comments regarding the topic, please share them in our Comment box below.

Got a parenting concern? Read articles or ask away and get instant answers on our app. Download theAsianparent Community on iOS or Android now!

Written by

James Martinez

Breastfeedingbreast milk contamination