Antidepressants and breastfeeding
I have been on various antidepressants for absolutely years, including during pregnancy and breastfeeding (I was on Citalopram at this time). Due to another complication my little guy was both breastfed and bottlefed with formula in his first few weeeks, and after two weeks appeared to be having some kind of reaction five to ten minutes after having breastmilk. After a few days this became a fairly clear "seizure" (going stiff, eyes rolling back, not responding to us etc). We took him to see a paediatric neurologist (I am almost embarassed to say that this is free in Australia), who ran a lot of tests and couldn't find anything else wrong. He agreed that circumstantially it was fair to assume that it was related to my antidepressants, but had not heard of any similar reactions. After this I stopped breastfeeding (which broke my heart!) but the little guy had no further seizures on formula. Just wondering whether anyone else has encountered anything like this?
1. Get the drug name, not the brand name. This makes it easier, though often the brand name is good enough. To find a drug name, I go to http://www.tga.gov.au and search.
2. Go to http://neonatal.ama.ttuhsc.edu/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi?pg=topics and search on the drug name. You may get the answer back as a statement of which category it is, or in a discussion. The categories can be found at this site http://home.satx.rr.com/jmuniz/breastfeeding/halescats.htm. He often recommends safer drugs as well.
3. If you found the information at the website unclear, as it is written for health care professionals, try searching the misc.kids.breastfeeding archives. Go to http://groups.google.com.au/groups?q=misc.kids.breastfeeding&hl=en, type in the drug name and HALES and click the radio button that says search only in misc.kids.breastfeeding. If anyone else has asked about the drug previously, it'll come up.
Many drugs are easy to find out about. If you are going to a doctor for a particular complaint and you think you may need a certain kind of drug (antidepressant, antiinflammatory, antihistamine, antibiotics, etc) I suggest going to the Hales forums http://neonatal.ama.ttuhsc.edu/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi?pg=topics and find the suitable category and have a quick read to discern the better options in that family of drugs.
I'm actually on cipramil and breastfeeding (a little, my son is one)...he's been fine...
The days are long but the years are short - enjoy them now.
The days are long but the years are short - enjoy them now.
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