HOME HELP CONTACT US SUBSCRIPTIONS CME ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Take the CME quiz: Vol. 6 No. 5, May 2005 E-Letters: Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when E-Letters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hale, T. W. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Hale, T. W. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

NeoReviews Vol.6 No.5 2005 e233
© 2005 American Academy of Pediatrics

Pharmacology Review

Drug Therapy and Breastfeeding: Antibiotics, Analgesics, and Other Medications

^* Department of Pediatrics, Texas Tech University School of Medicine, Amarillo, Tex

The first 300 words of the full text of this article appear below.

	Objectives

 
After completing this article, readers should be able to:

1. Describe the transfer of various medications into human milk.
   
2. Describe the hazards, if any, of administering medications to breastfeeding mothers.
   
3. Describe the treatment of various syndromes with medications most suitable for breastfeeding mothers.
   

	Introduction

 
Human milk not only is perfect nutrition for human infants, but it also provides an enormous array of growth factors and, most importantly, immunoglobulins that protect the infant from infectious disease during the first year after birth. Human milk is perfectly suited for the infant’s gastrointestinal (GI) tract, with the numerous growth factors enhancing growth and maturation of a relatively permeable GI tract and the high concentration of immunoglobulins directly protecting the GI tract from infectious organisms. Ultimately, infectious disease and mortality are significantly reduced in breastfed infants.

Although recent studies clearly have suggested that the number of women who choose to breastfeed is rising, the number of women who discontinue breastfeeding to take a medication because of advice from their clinicians is too high. Surveys in western countries indicate that 90% to 99% of women who breastfeed receive at least one medication during the first week postpartum. In at least one study, the use of medications was one of the major reasons that women discontinued breastfeeding.

Generally, some medication penetrates the milk compartment and exposes most infants to some medication, albeit in low concentrations. The degree of risk almost always is a function of the type (and risks) of medication being used and the dose transferred to the infant. Fortunately, for most medications, the dose transferred to the infant and the subsequent risk is low to nil. However, the clinician always must evaluate individual cases with respect to the medication used, the dose of medication transferred, and the relative ability of the infant to maintain homeostasis while . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. E. Burgos and B. L. Burke Jr Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome NeoReviews, May 1, 2009; 10(5): e222 - e229. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]