The birth of a long-awaited baby brings not only great happiness, but also many difficulties. One of the problems that young mothers may encounter even in the hospital ward of the maternity hospital is staphylococcus in breast milk. If it is suddenly discovered, some doctors insist on stopping breastfeeding immediately and start drinking antibiotics. Others, on the contrary, require an increase in the number of feedings and do not prescribe any treatment. Which of them is right? Where did staphylococcus come from in milk? How to get rid of it? What is it dangerous for babies? Let's see what the experts think about this.
Meet staphylococcus in all its glory
This microbe was called staphylococcus, starting from the Greek words "staphils", which means "grapes", and "cocci", that is, "grains". Staphylococci have the appearance of round grains gathering in colonies, similar to clusters of grapes. There are 27 species in their family, but only four are pathogenic.
1. Staphylococcus aureus. In breast milk, it is found more often than other types.
2. Epidermal (causes sepsis and epidermitis).
3. Saprophytic (leads to urethritis and cystitis).
4. Hemolytic (provokes purulent inflammation of the skin, sepsis and a number of other ailments).
Staphylococcus aureus is the most dangerous because it can cause the greatest number of diseases and affect the skin, mucous membranes, lungs, brain and bone marrow, and digestive tract organs. This type of microbes is also dangerous because it was able to best adapt to all measures to combat it. So, there is a group of Staphylococcus aureus called methicillin-resistant. Its representatives are immune to penicillins and cephalosporins, oxacillins, methicillins. Their harmfulness lies in the fact that they are unusually tenacious, do not die in the sun, remain dry, can tolerate a boiling point of up to 150 degrees for 10 minutes, do not mind swimming in alcohol, and they convert hydrogen peroxide into their food.
Where does staphylococcus come from in the hospital
According to statistics, each of us has several million bacteria. They have populated all the niches of the environment. Staphylococcus is also omnipresent. He is in the air, in water, in the earth, on the surfaces to which we touch. Moreover, he lives in us and on us. Therefore, it is impossible to completely get rid of it. Staph infection can occur anywhere. In the maternity hospital, he is found on poorly crafted equipment, on the white coats of medical staff, on any surface, just in the air. Of course, he is present on the body of women in labor and on their clothes. Nurses and nurses regularly sanitize, but no matter how thorough it is, new staphylococci very quickly re-populate the room. They are brought in by the attendants or the medical staff themselves, they arrive in the room with food or with things brought for mom or baby.
You can pick up staphylococcus in the following ways:
- through the toolkit;
- airborne;
- contact;
- with poorly processed food.
Panic about this is not worth it, because these microbes do not always cause diseases.
How staphylococci pass into breast milk
Many are perplexed: where can staphylococcus in breast milk come from if the woman in labor is absolutely healthy? As we have already described, this microbe is everywhere, even in those maternity hospitals where thorough sanitation is regularly carried out. On the body of mothers, he also reproduces with pleasure. To avoid him at all, the woman in labor should change clothes several times a day, and wear only boiled and ironed, and in addition, swim daily. In practice, this is difficult to implement. It’s much easier to wash your chest and hands thoroughly before each feeding. Previously, in maternity hospitals, it was additionally required to wipe the nipples with a solution of furatsilin before feeding. Especially carefully you need to process the nipple, on which cracks have formed. In these cases, staphylococci sitting on the skin and clothing easily fall into the wounds and immediately begin to multiply there. Without treatment, a woman can develop a dangerous disease - infectious mastitis. Staphylococcus in breast milk appears precisely from these wounds and the milk ducts infected with the microbe. Another reason is the presence of this infection in the body of a pregnant woman who remained without treatment. In this case, the microbe enters the milk through the lymphatic vessels. Sometimes a woman does not suspect that her body has a staphylococcal infection, so it is sluggish and asymptomatic.
For whom is staphylococcus dangerous?
Microorganisms present in breast milk first enter the baby’s mouth, and then into his digestive tract, but pathological conditions do not always occur. Mother's milk, being the richest source of vitamins, among other things, supplies the child with important antibodies that lead to the successful fight against microbes, including staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, most children's organisms do not react in any way to the presence of these microbes. They can cause the disease in such children:
- premature
- born with pathologies;
- very weak, low in weight;
- receiving complementary foods from the first days of life.
Staphylococcus in infants: symptoms of damage to internal organs and mucous membranes
A dangerous microbe can infect the mucous membranes of an infant. In this case, the following signs appear:
- temperature;
- cough;
- "Overlaid" mouth;
- runny nose with purulent discharge.
If staphylococcus penetrated into the digestive tract of the baby, he begins enterocolitis. Its symptoms are:
- loose frequent stools with mucus;
- refusal of food, moodiness;
- bloating;
- vomiting
- increased anxiety;
- colic
- temperature.
Most often, in infants infected with staphylococcus, conjunctivitis is observed. Signs of the disease:
- sour eyes (waking up, the baby finds it difficult to open them);
- redness and swelling of the eyelids;
- temperature.
If such symptoms appear, you need to see a doctor, and not engage in self-diagnosis and treatment with alternative methods in the form of eye washings, because staphylococcus, which is driven inside, will develop further.
Signs of staphylococcal skin lesions
Various types of rashes can also indicate staphylococcus in the baby. Symptoms of skin lesions often indicate such ailments:
1. Phlegmon. At the same time, the baby has an elevated temperature, reddened swelling on the skin is observed, to which the child reacts very painfully to touch.
2. Abscess. It is also accompanied by fever, moodiness, refusal of food. Pustules spread throughout the body. The skin around them becomes inflamed. When pressed, yellow-green pus flows out of them.
3. Pemphigus. Starting with the few bubble rashes that many parents take as a non-hazardous allergic reaction to diapers, this disease goes into sepsis without proper treatment. Signs of “dangerous” bubbles are common: the child’s moodiness, fever, unwillingness to eat.
4. Sepsis. This terrible disease often causes not staphylococcus in breast milk, but infection of the umbilical wound by medical personnel or the mother. Other, milder diseases, already caused by staphylococcus in milk, can also develop into sepsis.
Diagnostics
If staphylococcus is suspected, the following tests are taken from the baby:
- inoculation from the nasopharynx;
- skin scraping;
- blood test (from a finger);
- feces back sowing;
- back sowing mucus.
Analysis of breast milk for staphylococcus is also carried out, but its positive result is not decisive. The fact is that you need to take an analysis in a 100% sterile environment, which is almost impossible to achieve in our laboratories.
To give up or not to give up breastfeeding
A number of doctors insist that when staphylococcus is found, breastfeeding should be stopped, mothers should be treated with antibiotics, and only when the titers are completely free of staphylococcus should they continue to breastfeed. Most doctors, including the famous pediatrician Komarovsky, do not share this opinion. Mother's milk contains antibodies that are not found in any infant formula. They protect the child not only from staphylococcus, but also from other dangerous microbes. Therefore, it is necessary to continue breastfeeding. Of course, a woman must carefully comply with all hygiene requirements. Doctors recommend switching to artificial feeding only in especially severe cases, when a woman is diagnosed with severe diseases caused by staphylococci.
Breastfeeding for infectious mastitis
This ailment often affects women who have given birth for the first time, because they do not immediately know how to correctly put the baby on their breasts and control the arrival of milk in the mammary gland. In the first case, wounds appear on the nipple that immediately populate staphylococci. In the second case, milk stagnates, lactostasis begins, and breast tissue becomes inflamed. If inflammation has begun, and staphylococcus is found in breast milk, a woman needs not only not to give up feeding, but, on the contrary, apply crumbs to her breast more often than usual. In some cases, additional pumping is required after feeding. Sometimes, according to the testimony of a woman, a cut is made on the chest so that the pus gets a way out. At the same time, a course of therapy with antibiotics is carried out. Interrupt breastfeeding is necessary only if pus is excreted from the nipple along with milk. Then the breast is emptied with a breast pump, and after the disappearance of pus, lactation is continued again.
Treatment
Antibiotics against staphylococcus, especially golden, is not easy to pick up. In order not to make a mistake with the choice, you need to do an antibioticogram. Mostly, doctors prescribe Clarithromycin, Linkomycin, Azithromycin, Roxithromycin, Vancomycin, but these drugs may not be suitable for getting rid of methicillin-resistant streptococci.
Bacteriophage preparations that work with all groups of bacteria give good results.
In the complex, doctors can prescribe probiotics and immunostimulants.
Staphylococcus ideally kills ordinary zelenka, so it is necessary to lubricate the nipples with it if they have wounds.