COVID-19 not likely passed from moms to babies through breast milkUniversity of California researchers studying the breast milk of 18 women with COVID-19 found coronavirus RNA—but not live virus—in 1 of 64 samples, suggesting that babies aren't likely to be infected through that route.The research letter, published yesterday in JAMA, described studying self-collected and mailed samples and clinical data gathered through phone interviews from Mar 27 to May 6.
The mothers' babies ranged in age from newborn to 19 months, and each mother provided 1 to 12 breast milk samples.All but one woman had COVID-19 symptoms.
The one sample with coronavirus RNA tested positive only on the day of symptom onset; the ones tested 2 days before and 12 and 41