Cough/Cold medicine while breastfeeding?

[J_Anne]

I've got man flu it's the first cold I've had since before I was pregnant and its bad! I usually take sudafed but every label I read says don't take if breastfeeding. Does anyone know of anything I can take? X

 

[babybee]

Sorry to hear J_anne! I hope you feel better soon. I had a cold last week and took lemsip max which helped. I'm not sure if the label said not to take when breastfeeding though. I think that's a common statement on the medicine though so that they protect themselves. After my c section I remember having a shot of liquid morphine and worryingly asked the doc about breastfeeding and he said you'd literally have to take the medicine every 3 hours for 24 hours for it to impact the baby. So in sure you can take a lot of the things where the label advises against it. You could always ring your GP and ask their advice over the phone?
Xxx

 

[Muguboo]

I reckon the gp will say not to - it's pretty much anything you shouldn't do whilst preggers you can't do bf - because it's all getting passed to bubs through milk instead of blood. However, let common sense prevail - if you can take something a couple of hours before you feed how much will actually still be in your system - specially things like nasal sprays.

From a personal pov I would def avoid anything with caffeine just cos bubs only has a little heart and their hb is already fast (plus bubs + caffeine may send you nuts!)

And if you're sick you haven't got man flu, you have real flu (as Dave Gorman would say, if anyone has been watching his show on Dave)

 

[SpinSugar]

Avoid decongestants so Sudafed, lemsip, day nurse etc. Pseudoephedrine can actually dry up milk, evidence shows it can reduce it by 50%!
Pretty much limited to paracetamol & ibuprofen. Give me a shout if u have any more Qs (im a pharmacist)

 

[SpinSugar]

Ps hope you feel better soon...best thing would be sleep but hey, we all know how hard that is to get...!

 

[J_Anne]

Thank you ladies! Wow, I can't believe decongestants dry up your milk, fascinating!
I'll stick to paracetamol then I think! I managed to persuade LO to sleep for an hour after her feed this morning, hopefully she'll have one of her sleepy days!!

 

[babybee]

I didn't realise either - oops! Thankfully it didn't do anything to the milk supplemy but I guess lo doesn't drink that much anymore!x

 

[Alexandra84]

I used topical spray decongestants without any problems. Stuff like Sinex.

 

[babyem]

Thank you ladies! Wow, I can't believe decongestants dry up your milk, fascinating!
I'll stick to paracetamol then I think! I managed to persuade LO to sleep for an hour after her feed this morning, hopefully she'll have one of her sleepy days!!

Drugs have some weird and wonderful side affects! Domperidone is mainly prescribed for nausea and vomitting, but can also be prescribed for low milk supply when breast feeding! X

 

[Pippacarney]

Yes 100% avoid sudafed! I used that specially to dry my milk up, gone in 2 days! Xxx