Can I breastfeed while taking anti-inflammatory drugs?

You should not use drugs indiscriminately while breastfeeding, mainly because some drug ingredients will enter the baby's body through breast milk, thus affecting the baby's health. However, some new mothers have to take anti-inflammatory drugs during breastfeeding in certain circumstances, and at this time they are worried that it will affect their baby's breastfeeding. So, can I breastfeed while taking anti-inflammatory drugs? Let’s take a closer look below.

During breastfeeding, if you get sick, such as an infectious disease, you need to use antibiotics (also known as anti-inflammatory drugs). At this time, the mother can tell the doctor that she is breastfeeding, and the doctor will give the mother medicine that will not affect breastfeeding, so there is no problem with breastfeeding. The so-called "anti-inflammatory drugs" cannot be equated with antibiotics. In medicine, anti-inflammatory drugs should be called anti-inflammatory drugs, which are divided into steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The former include the common dexamethasone and prednisone, which have anti-inflammatory and anti-rheumatic effects; the latter can also be called antipyretic and analgesic drugs, such as aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen that we commonly use in daily life belong to this category. Antibiotics are only applicable to inflammation caused by bacterial infection and are ineffective against sterile inflammation such as rheumatism. Penicillin, cephalosporin, azithromycin, and levofloxacin that we come into contact with in our daily lives belong to this category.

So which drugs are safe? It’s very simple, just look at the level marked on the instructions. If it is L1 or L2 level, it will have no effect on children and can be used with confidence. The L here stands for lactation, which means breastfeeding. If the level is L3, L4, or L5, indicating that it may have an impact on your child, don't choose it. Breastfeeding is a relatively long process, and mothers will inevitably develop some bacterial infectious diseases, the most common of which are mastitis, urinary tract infection, vaginitis, etc. So, can antibiotics be used during breastfeeding, that is, to treat the mother's disease while taking into account the baby's safety, thus achieving the best of both worlds? Anti-inflammatory drugs contained in breast milk are not suitable for feeding children. If the mother has received an anti-inflammatory injection, I think the inflammation is still quite serious, because breast milk is the channel between the mother and the child. After the mother takes the medicine, the child will also absorb the medicine by sucking breast milk. The liver and kidney functions of breastfed babies are not fully functional, and many medicines are not suitable for babies. Therefore, to be on the safe side, mothers who have received anti-inflammatory injections are not suitable for breastfeeding.

Antibiotics that are safe to take while breastfeeding. Penicillin V potassium, amoxicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanate potassium, ampicillin, cephradine, cephalexin, cefuroxime axetil, cefaclor, cefprozil, cefdinir, cefpodoxime proxetil, gentamicin, azithromycin, roxithromycin, clarithromycin, minocycline (short-term use), ofloxacin (not recommended during breastfeeding if there is a safer alternative), levofloxacin (not recommended during breastfeeding if there is a safer alternative), metronidazole (may affect the taste of breast milk and cause infants to abstain from milk), nitrofurantoin (contraindicated for children under 1 month old and those with favism), furazolidone (contraindicated for children under 1 month old and those with favism), and clindamycin phosphate. Common banned anti-inflammatory drugs include: quinolone antibiotics (norfloxacin, levofloxacin), streptomycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, metronidazole, tinidazole, ornidazole, sulfonamides, gentamicin, etc. When using these drugs, it takes at least five drug half-lives for the drug to be metabolized. During this period, the breast milk should be expressed and discarded.

How do you calculate this time? For example, a mother mistakenly used levofloxacin, and the half-life of levofloxacin is 6.5 hours. Therefore, after 5 half-lives, that is, 5*6.5 hours=32.5 hours, levofloxacin is basically metabolized and the mother can continue breastfeeding. The mother should adjust the frequency of breastfeeding during this period and avoid letting illness affect the secretion of breast milk. Although it is not recommended to feed breast milk to the baby during this period, the mother still needs to express milk regularly to keep the breasts stimulated and maintain normal milk secretion. This way, once your body has recovered, you can quickly resume breastfeeding. For the baby, the mother should hold the baby more and spend more time with the baby, and not let the baby think that the mother will not breastfeed her, which will make the baby feel insecure. In short, if your mother is sick, she should follow the doctor's advice, actively cooperate with treatment, maintain an optimistic attitude, and let her body recover as soon as possible.