My neice was diagnosed with one of two things last night, Lyme's Disease or Rocky Moutain Spotted fever.

The antibiotic that she has to take, she can't nurse her baby on. She is very sick, loosing muscle control in her face etc... and so has to take the meds. It is doxycycline, (sp?) a tetracycline drug.

She is coming here and staying, so that I can take care or her and her baby and NURSE the baby along with my new baby for 12 days till the medicine is out of her system.

I know we are in for a lot of adjustments, but any advice will be welcome on how to handle things. I don't want to let either baby cry etc... What will make nursing them together if I have to, workable etc... My baby is 1 month, hers is 3 months.

kdunnaway@bledsoe.net

TIA

Aileen

Antibiotics safe to take during lactation

The following antibiotics are all safe to take whilst breastfeeding;

Amoxycillin, Amoxil 250-500mg three times a day
Azithromycin, Zithromax, 500mg daily
Cefaclor, Distaclor, 375mg twice daily or 250mg three times daily
Cefuroxamine, Zinnat, 250mg twice daily
Cephalexin, Cefalexin, Keflex, 250mg four times a day
Cephradine, Velosef, 250-500mg four times daily
Clarithromycin, Klaricid, 250mg twice daily
Co-amoxiclav, Augmentin, 375-625mg three times a day
Co-fluampicil, Flucloxacillin 250mg + Ampicillin 250mg, Magnapen 500mg four times daily
Erythromycin, Erymax, Erythroped, Erythrocin 250-500mg four times a day with food
Flucloxacillin, Floxapen, 250-500mg four times a day one hour before food
Penicillin V, Phenoxymethyl penicillin 250-500mg four times a day one hour before food
Trimethoprim, Monotrim,200mg twice daily

All are available as liquid forms to treat infant infections

Intra-venous antibiotics

Some antibiotics e.g. gentamycin are given intra-venously as they poorly absorbed from the gut. Any drug passing into breastmilk is therefore unlikely to be absorbed in sufficient quantities by the baby and there is no need to cease breastfeeding on safety grounds. However the mother may not feel well enough to breastfeed or may need the baby to be cared for by another adult and brought to her for feeding.

Tetracyclines

It was believed in the past that tetracycline antibiotics were contra-indicated in breastfeeding because they could stain the infant's teeth (even if they had not appeared). In short courses this appears not to be a problem as the drug forms a complex with the calcium in the milk and is not absorbed by the baby. Long courses e.g. for acne should be avoided wherever possible. The drugs in this family are:

Tetracycline
Oxytetracycline
Minocycline (Minicin)
Doxycycline (Vibramycin)

Metronidazole

Metronidazole (Flagyl) has been said to impart an unpleasant taste to the milk and cause the baby to reject it. It has not been possible to trace the original research which suggested this or who tasted the milk and made this conclusion. Babies do not appear to be concerned by the frequent variation in the taste of breastmilk which occurs naturally. Occasionally it can alter the colour of the milk. In the US single doses of 2g are used and breastfeeding is temporarily interrupted. In the UK doses of 200-400mg three times a day are used and breastfeeding can continue. Intra-venous use does not appear to pose any difficulties in lactation.

The concentration in milk following an oral dose 400mg three times daily produced milk levels of 15.52 µg/ml and 200mg three times a day an equivalent dose to the infant of 3mg/kg/day compared to the dose of 22.5mg/kg/day given therapeutically to children.

Other antibiotics

Ciprofloxacillin (ciproxin) can cause problems in the joints of juvenile animals exposed to it. Whilst the relevance to breastfeeding is unknown, and short maternal courses are unlikely to pose problems, unless there is a compelling reason to use it, other antibiotics are preferable e.g. trimethoprim or nitrofurantoin for urinary tract infection.

Nitrofurantoin (Furadantin, Macrodantin) - only small amounts are excreted into breastmilk but may cause haemolysis in G6PD deficient infants (a comparatively rare condition involving enzyme deficiency). It may colour the mother's urine, tears and milk yellow. This is not significant.

Vancomycin and teicoplanin are used to treat multiple resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The side effects of these drugs are potentially severe and their use requires blood counts, kidney and liver function tests. Use to treat MRSA is generally given by intra-venous and intra-muscular absorption. The British National Formulary (BNF) states that oral absorption is poor but there is little information on use in lactation and studies of milk transfer. The mother may not feel well enough to breastfeed during therapy but individual circumstances should be taken into consideration.

**how long is she going to be taking the med? also, there are many alternatives to doxy if she needs it longterm, why doesn't she ask her dr to prescribe one of those?**

(just seems a lot easier, yk?) one more thing, how old is her baby?

but THANK YOU for doing something so wonderful, generous and kind as to nurse your niece's dd while she's sick.

((HUGS))

:thumbsup:

Where did you get this info.?

The baby is 3 months. My neice will be taking the meds for 10 days. According to the Dr.s, this is the only drug that has any real effect on these 2 diseases. I don't know much more than what my sis has told me. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Stacy. I would want someone to do the same for me if I had an emergency and couldn't nurse my baby.

Well, the first few days will be really rough because, basically, your body is producing enough milk for your one month old and now you'll want to feed twice that PLUS the difference between the appetite of a one month old and three month old.

You may want to consider having a back up source of nutrition to get over the hump.

Nurse the one month old first, she's more vulnerable.

Get help. You won't be able to do very much. It will basically be like the growth spurt from heck. You're going to need to sit and drink and eat and nurse for two to three days.

Then, when the twelve days are over, you might get a pump to help you with the engorgement to taper back down.

I'd keep asking around about that med. It would be so much easier if she could nurse and you could just care for HER and your own baby.

Talk to your local or any LLL group or leader and find out information on the drug or safe drugs. Talk to the doctor again and tell them how important it is for her to be able to continue to nurse.

I had to have an MRI done and they had to give me an injection. I was told by the radiologist no nursing for 72 hours, but as I investigated more though LLL and other resources I found I could do it soon, like in 12 hours.....Point is, sad to say but often times doctors and such give out bad information.

I nursed my twins until they were 17 months. Those first few months I ate a lot and DRANK A WHOLE LOT!!! Lots and lots of ice water. I nursed my boys at the same time and some days that's all I did was sit and nurse.

What an awesome lady though, to help someone out like this. The other mom will need to pump and dump during this time so she doesn't loose her milk supply...

Tawnya

Aileen...no advice, just wanted to say what an AWESOME thing you are doing for your niece and her baby.

i have not read through all of the replies.

see if her dr will call dr hale and get the latest on the med.

if you end up nursing both the best advice i have is to nurse both babies at the same time. the reason this is so important in your case is you need a fast increase in production. simultaneous nursing increases prolactin more than back to back nursing.

you may need to use some coping skills to deal with the different rhythyms of the two babies suckling. it is a sensory assault of sorts. as long as you know that before hand you should be okay.

what a very kind thing to do, good for you both :).

(ps...make sure she pumps)

I know for a fact that you can not take doxycycline while brastfeeding. A perinatologist I saw prescribed it for me for something, but you absolutely cannot breastfeed while taking it. I think one of the side effects for the child was that it will cause their teeth to grow in brown or something like that! Not sure right now, but definitely cant breastfeed while taking it!

Good luck! :)