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| Home > Breast Feeding > Medication
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| | Medication
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The drugs you consume may find its way into the milk you produce, albeit to a lesser degree. It is advisable therefore to consider the effects of medication on lactation and on your baby. While most medications are safe to take while breastfeeding, it`s wise to consult your doctor or the pediatrician before taking anything. Here are some general guidelines.
There are three issues to consider when considering taking medication while breastfeeding:
1. The need for the drug
2. Its effect on the baby.
3. It`s effect on lactation.
Answering these questions should help you weigh the risks and the benefits of taking a particular medication. You may also to consider whether timing the dosages can minimize baby`s exposure to the drug. If it`s absolutely necessary to avoid breastfeeding while taking a medication, consider temporary weaning pump and dump as an alternative to stopping breastfeeding entirely.
Your illness will be the determining factor whether or not you need the drug? It will also depend on the extent of your ailment. Be honest. Trying to tough it out for several days may actually decrease your milk supply, and you may not be prove to be a very good mother to your baby during this time. Taking medicine may often lessen the intensity and the length of your illness, and in some situations, it`s absolutely necessary. If the medication is absolutely imperative for your own well-being, usually the benefits that will accrue to you--and indirectly, to baby--will outweigh the risks of baby being exposed to a small amount of the medication in your milk.
On the other hand, if you suffer from minor ailment, such as a cold, consider alternatives to taking medicine. While nearly all over-the-counter cold remedies are safe to take while breastfeeding, they may not be effective in relieving the symptoms. effective. You may get more relief by treating your cold the old- fashioned way: steam, extra fluids, rest, and a tincture of time.
Often, a particular drug may not safe to ingest while breastfeeding, or if adequate information is not available about a drug, you with your physician`s advice may decide to treat your condition with a safer variant. You and your doctor should chose the drug, which is least likely to cause harm to your baby and your milk production, if there are various drugs that can be used to treat your illness effectively. This may imply using older drugs rather than the newest addition from the pharmaceutical company.
You may delay the treatment, until your baby is older or weaned, if your doctor thinks it is necessary for you to wean because of a drug or a particular medical procedure. Your doctor is the best person to decide on that score. Drugs in breast milk present less of a problem to an older breastfed baby. Yet if you`re planning to nurse until your baby weans herself, the day when you will no longer be breastfeeding may be a lot further off than either you or your doctor anticipate.
Many drugs taken by a mother make their way into her milk. The important question is not whether the drug gets into milk, but whether the levels in the milk are such that they will affect the baby.
Here are some of the factors that influence how much of a drug gets into a mother`s milk and how it affects her baby.
While most drugs do pass into your milk, most appear in only minute amounts - usually around one percent or less of the amount taken by the mother.
The route of administration is a deciding factor about how fast the medication enters and clears from your blood, and therefore your milk. For example, some medications come in both oral and inhalant forms, which have different clearing times.
It`s better to use a short-acting medicine that is taken thrice or four times a day than to use a long-acting, once-a-day form of the medication. Although less convenient, short-acting medications takes less time to clear from your blood and milk. They`re also easier for babies to metabolize, so there is less risk of the drug accumulating in the infant`s system.
Consider the age of your baby. Your doctor should be more cautious when prescribing medication to a mother who is breastfeeding a premature or newborn infant ten times a day than when prescribing medication for a woman breastfeeding a one-year-old four times a day. A frequently feeding infant ingests more of the medicine than a less frequent feeder. The drug will be more concentrated in the baby`s body when its size is small. Also, the liver and the kidneys of older infants are better equipped to metabolize and eliminate the drug.
Most drugs taken by the mother during breastfeeding or lactation is less dangerous than if she were taking them during pregnancy. If a drug is safe to use during pregnancy, it is probably safe during lactation. You need to be concerned more about the effects of a drug on a growing fetus than on a fully developed infant.
If there are concerns about possible effects on your baby, the doctor should monitor the baby during the time you are taking the drug. This might involve checking levels of the drug in your milk or the baby`s blood, or watching carefully for changes in your baby`s behavior.
Be particularly cautious about taking more than one drug while breastfeeding. While each drug taken separately may be listed in the safe category, their combination may be unsafe if not for your baby, for you. Inform your doctor about any medications you are already taking before he prescribes another. Your pharmacists would be able to enlighten you better about drug interactions.
Some drugs do not harm the baby, but may affect your milk volume by suppressing the hormones which help in the production of milk. On the other hand, some conditions like hypothyroidism can interfere with your ability to produce milk, and medications to treat the problem will improve milk production.
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