Women in the UK and US are selling their breast milk online, despite serious concerns that it could be harmful for babies.

Mothers are using community forums, including Facebook, to make some quick cash out of their extra milk.

Buying breast milk is tempting to new parents struggling to express their own, as it provides babies with better protection against illnesses and allergies compared to formula.

Websites such as onlythebreast.com appear to answer this need, saying: 'Our discrete breastfeeding breast milk classified system makes it possible to sell or buy breast milk in a clean, private way.'

Donor mothers list their milk under the age of their baby and if they can provide fresh milk on demand. A search around the site reveals women from Essex to Newcastle are offering it either fresh or frozen for around ￡1 per fluid ounce, while $2 per ounce is the standard rate in the US. The site has 14,000 members.

The website's founder Glenn Snow said he set it up after his wife Chelly said she wanted to sell her extra milk to give her some spending money as a stay-at-home mother.

Mothers can donate and receive breast milk for free via milk banks. These centres store breast milk for babies whose mothers can't breastfeed. However, they give priority to babies who are sick.

The banks collect expressed milk from pre-screened mothers who have a plentiful supply and a baby under six-months old. It is then pasteurised before it is offered to nearby hospitals.

But today doctors in Germany warned new parents against privately obtaining their baby's food through social networks such as Facebook.

'Donors can be taking medicines or drugs, have infectious illnesses like AIDS or Hepatitis,' Wolfram Hartmann, president of the Professional Association of Pediatricians, said.

'Nobody can check whether the unknown mother's milk is harmless for the particular child' he warned, adding that the milk's quality could also be affected during its transportation.

(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)