KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

Hi mummies, anyone of you stored your kids' cord blood in any cord blood banks and for how long? Do you find it really necessary or just a waste of money?

i've been storing my kid's and am thinking of stopping, so would like to hear some feedback from other parents.

Angelight, read this article <http://pediatrics.about.com/od/agesands ... d_bank.htm>

I agree with its conclusions. Although I suppose if you have already started on it, perhaps the incremental cost is not a lot. If you decide to stop, not sure if you can actually donate the sample to the public cord blood bank.

Hi 3Boys, thanks for your feedback but your article link cannot be opened leh. Can resend? Thks!

3Boys wrote:Angelight, read this article <http://pediatrics.about.com/od/agesands ... d_bank.htm>

I agree with its conclusions. Although I suppose if you have already started on it, perhaps the incremental cost is not a lot. If you decide to stop, not sure if you can actually donate the sample to the public cord blood bank.

Angelight wrote:Hi 3Boys, thanks for your feedback but your article link cannot be opened leh. Can resend? Thks!

3Boys wrote:Angelight, read this article <http://pediatrics.about.com/od/agesands ... d_bank.htm>

I agree with its conclusions. Although I suppose if you have already started on it, perhaps the incremental cost is not a lot. If you decide to stop, not sure if you can actually donate the sample to the public cord blood bank.

Will have to do it later. Did you try to copy and paste the link to your browser?

Try this
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/agesands ... d_bank.htm

Angelight wrote:Hi 3Boys, thanks for your feedback but your article link cannot be opened leh. Can resend? Thks!

3Boys wrote:Angelight, read this article <http://pediatrics.about.com/od/agesands ... d_bank.htm>

I agree with its conclusions. Although I suppose if you have already started on it, perhaps the incremental cost is not a lot. If you decide to stop, not sure if you can actually donate the sample to the public cord blood bank.

Will have to do it later. Did you try to copy and paste the link to your browser?

I did for DS and am still paying for the storage. We were kinda blur and cord blood banking was very new when I had DD. I think I will stop when DS hits his teens.

It is not necessary but more like an insurance for us. I guess when all is well we wonder why we are spending a few hundred a year for this. But, choi choi choi, if something were to happen and the cord blood could be used, we will thank the everything in sight that we banked the cord blood.

So, as long as we can afford it, we will pay the yearly storage fee. If finances are tight, like some insurance, this will be one of the few things to give up.

I am wondering though if we can donate the cord blood to the public cord blood bank when we decide we do not want to keep it for ourselves anymore.

Thanks, Sun & 3Boys, I managed to read the article. Hmmm...seems like the article wasn't very in favor of cord blood storage. Btw, 3Boys, I love your new avatar, very apt for your nick! ;-)

Funz, thanks for your sharing. I also feel now that cord blood storage is a 'good-to-have' but not a necessity. But at that time when DD was born, like every kiasu parent, I just jumped on the bandwagon to store it. But now am feeling the pinch every year cos cannot use Medisave. Hence I'm thinking of stopping the storage but not sure if I'm doing the right thing...

By the way, I checked with the public cord blood bank, they don't accept cord blood from private banks. So if you decide to stop storage, you either ask them to dispose it or donate it to the private bank you stored for their lab use.

Angelight wrote:
at that time when DD was born, like every kiasu parent, I just jumped on the bandwagon to store it. But now am feeling the pinch every year cos cannot use Medisave. Hence I'm thinking of stopping the storage but not sure if I'm doing the right thing....

Is your fees high?

I was disappointed this service wasn't available here when dd was borned.
N I stored ds's with cordlife n will continue with it, just in case.

I think there is a misconception that cord blood banking is "insurance" for your child. The fact is that if *touchwood* the child develops some disease later on such as leukemia, doctors cannot use their own cord blood, since their DNA is already defective, using the cord blood again will still introduce the defective DNA. So the cord blood can only be used on family members such as siblings, or in a public cord bank where it can be used for other patients. A friend of mine who is an PhD in this field says that actually the technology nowadays is able to produce the obtain the same treatment with adult blood/bone marrow (can't remember which one he said exactly). The cost might be higher than treatment with cord blood, but it is much cheaper than having to store cord blood for 20 years. And furthermore, if you store the cordblood, you might not be able to use it eventually too, even if your siblings need it. Cos siblings have higher chance but not 100% compatibility. He said that cord blood banking only make sense if its donated to public so that hospitals can look for a match whenever a patient needs it. Some European countries have already banned private cord banks.
You can read more about cord blood banking here.
http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/my-bab ... ntroversy/