Wrong Breast Milk

Specialties Pediatric

Published

Hey guys!

I am a brand new peds nurse, and I have lots of questions as I am beginning my career in pediatric nursing. At my hospital, we store breast milk for all the babies on the unit in one large refrigerator. All the breast milk containers must have the pt's name on the time and the time the breast milk was expressed. We have to perform a double check with another caregiver before giving the breast milk to the pt to ensure that we are giving the correct breast milk. Is this what other pediatric hospitals are doing as well? Has anyone had an incident in there hospital where the wrong breast milk was given? If so, what happened and was the child okay? I know at my hospital if the wrong breast milk was given, it is treated like a body fluid exposure and testing has to be done for HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis B. Although, I have been reading the literature on my own, and there have been no reported cases of hepatitis C or B being transmitted through breast milk, and there has been no reported case of HIV being transmitted through breast milk after just a single feed. Usually HIV is transmitted through breast milk after several feeds... so my question is, how is it beneficial to do all of this testing for HIV, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C ? It seems like the risks outweigh the benefits because testing for all of this stuff can be very stressful for the parents and the healthcare providers I am sure..

The literature I am reading is up to date... am I missing something? Thanks guys for any information you can share!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

That's exactly what we do here too. There have been a handful of incidents of feeding the wrong EBM to infants here with no adverse outcomes other than the frustration and anxiety associated with all the testing.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty; Camp Nursing.

I briefly worked w another nurse who says she gave the wrong breastmilk to a pt. She had to face questioning by a panel and nearly lost her job. That's all I got out of her, she didn't want to talk any more about it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Wow, I hope that noone would lose their job over this. It was an honest mistake and the risk to the baby seems very minimal, if there is a risk at all. I saw on the CDC website though that it has to be treated as a body fluid exposure because the true risk cannot be determined.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Going to Peds!.

My facility considers it "white blood". An exposure to untested blood would be a potential source of infection & is treated just like giving the patient the wrong blood.

Sent from my HTC One X using allnurses.com

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hello all, I am in need of a little bit of help. have been a nurse for 13 years. worked in various specialties and now I'm trying to get into pediatric home care. the company is called Maxim healthcare, and they advised me that I will need to take a test. however I'm not sure how to s..tudy or if there are any study guides available. I am NOT a good test taker and I want to be prepared. is anyone can give me any tips it would be appreciated

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pedi.

When there were incidents of wrong breast milk in my hospital, the state would be known to drop in and do audits. Breast milk needs to be double checked. Before I left the hospital, they had recently started scanning breast milk.

Most of the cases of wrong breast milk being given probably involved an HIV negative mother which is likely why there haven't been any cases of HIV transmission due to breast milk errors reported. In developed countries, we tend to advise against women with HIV breast feeding. Regardless, it is a body fluid exposure and should be treated as such.

As far as losing one's job, I honestly don't think this is just an "honest mistake" that should be overlooked. There are policies for double checks in place for a reason. If a nurse doesn't follow policy and administers the wrong breast milk to a patient, there are consequences to follow.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Policy and procedure are there for a reason!! And if a parent goes the legal route you don't have a leg to stand on. We have caught a few near misses, especially with kids with the same last name and similar mom first name. A nurse on the peds floor was suspended without pay recently where I work. I can't wait for our scanners to be up and running!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Oh yeah, of course policies and procedures are created for a reason and I will always follow them because that's the only way to provide the best care to your patient and cover yourself. I was just curious if other hospitals did double checks like ours to prevent errors from happening. I am just the type of person that loves to research policies and procedures so that I can understand why they are the way the are-- this helps me to remember them better anyways so that I can always be sure to implement them in my practice. I understand that it would have to be treated as a body fluid exposure with all of the necessary tests involved because the true risk is not fully understood.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment