DailyNewsTribune.com - Local / Regional News: Buying breast milk online is risky business


Buying breast milk online is risky business
By Jessica Fargen / Boston Herald
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Demand for breast milk has hit a 20-year high in the United States, causing some experts to worry that desperate women who can't afford to buy expensive milk to nurse their babies will turn to the Internet, where mother's milk is sold cheap and without regulation.
At $3 an ounce -- about $100 a day -- many moms can't afford to buy from a regulated milk bank, but with a few clicks they can find it for as little as $1 an ounce. Diseases such as HIV and hepatitis can be transmitted through untreated breast milk.
'Buyers should beware that they may even be getting goat's milk from somebody who just wants to make money. That's what's dangerous,' said Lois D.W. Arnold, who teaches at Healthy Children Project in East Sandwich.
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