milk bank won't take vegan milk?

[USAmma]

I thought all milk was pretty much the same. I can understand not accepting it from people who take prescription meds and drugs, but vegans? It's under their "FAQ" page.

http://home.earthlink.net/~milkbank/

Darshani

[Viola]

It says if you are vegan and don't supplement your diet with vitamins. I guess the feeling is you will lack adequate B vitamins or something? I don't know. The requirements are pretty strict. I was turned down as a blood donor when I was 18 because of low iron, and then again when I was 20 as I had taken anti-malarial medication in the past 6 months. I could give blood after that, but it sounds like I would not be able to be a milk donor. And then if you've lived in Europe for a total of more than 5 years, you are out too.

[Meiri]

Holy cow! Do they accept anybody???

I donated for a particular child back in 90-91, but maybe the restrictions were looser since she was 11? I take asthma meds, and did back then too.

Reading those restrictions, I'd be out because of a boyfriend I had almost 20 years ago who'd gone through an extreme stupid period while in Vietnam....If there were going to be consequences from That I think they'd've hit already.

From what I saw, if you, as a vegan, supplement with a vitamin, they'll accept you.

[Kundalini-Mama]

As an almost vegan (I eat honey and lots of it ), I can understand the B12 issue. B12 supplementation is very important as it is near impossible to get naturally in the soil nowadays.

But, that said, I get my B12 from enriched rice milk, not a vitamin supplement.

I also drink lots of herb teas, as does Aidan. Lots of nettles, red rasp leaf, alfalfa, oatstraw, red clover, chamomille, burdock root and dandelion root With, lots of honey of course This would make me ineligible to be a donor, how sad. I'm not taking ephedra or something :

Amy

[Clarity]

at least one milk bank only wanted totally dairy free women, so they'd probably take vegans. I was looking at then directly a year of so ago -there aren't that many, but each seemed to be looking for slighly different women depending on their client infant needs and existing donors. Looking at the individual banks on the links page might be informational.

[Quickening]

I saw that too, how sad! I'd rather milk from vegans (who have truly vegan and healthy lifestyles unlike those "fad" vegans) because of all those antibiotics and crap in meat and dairy. There's also the issue of large foreign proteins in cows milk passing thru mother's breastmilk and into the baby (especially babies whose guts havent developed properly!

[rainbowschooler]

OMG!!!!
I had NO IDEA!!! I don't know about anyone else, BUT knowing this now, it makes me very wary of BreastMilk from a bank. If Vegan milk isn't good (and decidely has less toxins), then who's milk is good? ??

And a scary thought just ran through my head. Drug users donate blood and plasma alot.... how would you ever know if they donate milk?

And if that would be the case - not saying it is - What would you do? what's worse formula or milk from a bank?

I'm glad I'm not in that position and wish that no one ever needed to use a milk bank.

Thanks for the heads up!!

This could be part of the question I left about vegetarian / vegan moms getting bashed, but it was removed from the forum because some people can't agree on anything --

Mel Mel said something that I tried to agree with there, but couldn't -- 'It would be nice if everyone could just accept that there are different ways too look at things!'

Think the Milk Bank should do more research!

(HELP - I tried asked this before my question was removed from the site -- pretty new to this site and I'm not following a lot of the shorthand that people are using - can anyone clue me in?)

[Clarity]

how are they refusing vegan moms if they only ask for them to be taking a vitamin? And like I said, that was one site (and not a bank). Individual banks have different rules/needs. And since at some point many ask specifically for dairy free, they'd probably welcome vegan moms.

The women are interviewd and tested pretty extensively...and donors don't get paid...so the chances are low you'd get a drug user...plus few drugs are excreted in any quantity in milk. And they do do pretty extensive testing, so I think that's a false fear. Those cows that give the milk used for formula get a lot of drugs too. So go figure. Lots of babies who get milk bank milk cannot tolerate any formulas AT ALL. So without milk banks, they might die, literally. Rarely are banks used by healthy babies. So if a donor mom smoked pot once in a while (which is highly unlikely) it pales compared to the illnesses facing those babies.

[Konur's Mom]

AmyD, do you have a link about vit B-12 coming from the soil? We just had a discussion about this on another board and someone said the same thing, but could not back it up so I was wondering if you had a link about it.

[Kundalini-Mama]

I read it in my "Becoming Vegan" book.

The thing is, it is not a reliable way to get B12 anymore, w/overfarming, overharvesting, overpesticiding etc, it is killing the B12. We buy all organic and I don't wash anything so I hope that we are getting some natural B12 that way. I do not depend on it for our daily recommneded amt though, I think of it as an added bonus

IIRC, Vit B12, is not even a vit, but it is a bacteria and that is how animals get it, from eating grass and stuff, and the soil that is on their food. The book spoke about how "back in the day" people were getting more B12, b/c they weren't so anal about washing their produce and such.

I don't have a link unfortunately, just that from the book. I'm NAKing, so maybe I can come back to this thread later and post her references.

HTH
Amy

[Konur's Mom]

Thanks Amy!

[Greaseball]

I've read that nutritional yeast is a way to get B12.

Reading the site makes me not want to donate to a bank, especially when they are selling it for $3.00 an ounce and not paying the donors anything. I'd much rather pump and hand it over to a mother in my area, or mail it to someone on the board for free.

[lilyka]

They aren't really seeling it. They are trying to recover some of thier cost but still mostly operate in a defficit. I donated over 1000 ounces to the denver milk bank. Here is a start at what it cost for them to get and process my milk.

First they took my blood and I shipped my first 200 ounces
so blood work was probably about $100, and shipping the milk was $150, dry ice was $10
so for the first shipment, of milk they might not even be able to use it cost them around $260 or $2.60 per ounce. just to get it there.

then it would be mixed with other milk and pasturized. One woman runs everything at the milk bank and they have a few more volunteers and maybe some part time employees as needed from what I understand. I accedentally shipped my first load of milk on a Friday so she had to come in on her day off to recieve my milk. Some time between 7AM and noon.

So add to that $2.50 emloyee wages, overhead, and shipping where it is going.

then they would ship the cooler box to me, full of storage containers. roughly $10
then I would pack it when I had about 200 more ounces and send it back. ($160 - $200)

Anyone who needs milk to survive is given milk regardless of thier ability to pay. So more deficit. The milk bank, while operating out of the hospital is not funded by the hospital so it isn't like they can pull money from other departments./ three dollars an ounce is really nothing when it is what you have to have.

As for not accepting vegans, it might be that they are concerned (even if needlessly) about the mothers ability to provide enough milk for her baby, maintain her own health and donate with out supplementation. My babys health was always thier first concern. Was she getting enough, was she growing well. Was I sure I still wanted to donate.