Cord Blood - did you bank it, and need it?

[Rachel]

I made the decision not to bank by newborn's cord blood when he was born last month, and now I found out he has craniosynostosis, the metopic type and will need the surgery. Of course, my mind is whirling that I should have banked it. But I had two other "healthy" kids, and was annoyed at the cost involved.

If your child has already had a cranio surgery - did they use cord blood? Did anybody ask their NS or PS about it?


Thanks.

[cheryl2]

We did not bank cord blood. We weren't asked if we had banked any. Since we have the same blood type, I donated blood for her. Many hospitals will let you or someone who is a match donate blood specifically for your child. I've heard that some hospitals restrict blood donations to immediate family members. If you have to use blood from the blood bank, it is very safe. There is such a small chance that anything could go wrong with the blood.

[Katie]

Don't worry about the fact that you didn't bank it :hugg We looked in to it but the price was just too high and the likelyhood of ever using it was next to nothing. It isn't used in surgery to replace lost blood per se, more for the stem cells it produces. The stem cells can be used to treat certain types of cancer and other illneses. To my understanding, there isn't enough of it to use as a transfusion for a major surgery. Hope that helps :hugg

[Jennifer]

We didn't bank it. We were never asked about it by our NS/PS.......

[lucsdad]

we didn't bank our children's blood either.
no dr's ever asked us about it, even at birth.

lisa

[laurensmom]

We didn't bank it or were asked by our NS/PS either. We had friends and family donate. Both me and my husband are B+ and wouldn't you know it the only other type she could be was O+..and she was!

[Matthews Mommy]

No we never did although with Matthew we should have because he has rare antibodies that we don't have.

[snickers9246]

I was jsut reading into this myself. It's a lot less expensive up here to do it, storage fees are only about $1400 for the first 10-15 years. My understanding is that you wouldn't have been able to use it either, it seems it's for illnesses, ie Cancer, strokes, Parkinsons, ahlzheimers etc. We didn't match our daughter either after being told it's such a minimal chance of us not matching not to worry about it. Sure enough we were the third couple in 10 years that didn't match! :pullhair we weren't allowed to have any other family donate, we had to go right to the bank. I was nervous, but they test everything so well now I felt safe enough to let them do it. :) Luckily everything went well and my Doodles is now 1 year post op and looking adorable as ever!!! LOL!!

[plukids]

We did bank our son Casimir's cord blood. We did because we decided it could be a sort of insurance policy. I do not know what the future holds in medicine but thought that some of the research studies done overseas with stem cells are incredible. I have a close friend who was diagnosed with leukemia and another that has a child with neuroblastoma. Both of them received stem cell transplants and they helped. I think banking is controversial though. I think if there were donor banks similiar to blood banks we could all donate cord blood and all retrieve cord blood later if needed .... paying the expense only if you use it. All in all, I see it as an insurance policy for later. Out of 4 children we only banked one. I do NOT think it would help with craniosynostosis at all though. Don't beat yourself up, you did nothing wrong.

[saraweise]

Wow. I always regretted not banking Joseph's core blood once we heard about his cranio but the cost was prohibitive. Thanks to all of the responses here I am relieved!

[Melissa]

Sure enough we were the third couple in 10 years that didn't match! :pullhair

We're in the same boat - Bryson didn't match either of us, either. Back when he was born, I don't think the cord-blood storage was even available (we'd never heard of it, at any rate, and it wasn't offered to us). We managed to get through the surgeries using blood from the blood bank, but I don't mind telling you it really worried me on occasion. All we could do was just hope and pray that whomever had donated the blood he used was a safe & healthy person....but supposedly they have all kinds of checks in place to assure that only healthy, drug/alcohol/disease free blood is accepted for donation these days, too...