Taken into hospital and my poor bf son

[mummynumnum]

I was taken into hosp yesterday with pancreatitis developed from stuck gallstone v angry as gallbladder op last week was cancelled. My son is just over 10mths. Ebf and take juice but no formula or bottle. From what docs said, iv antibiotics and what I have git make it virtually impossible to bf. So worried about him. Whats best way to handle this?

I can't help with the bf but so sorry to hear you are in hosp - you must be in a lot of pain too :-(. Any chance you could get someone to grab a midwife or paed from the delivery wards? I hope they have given you a room and not put you on the ward?

Phone the Breastfeeding Network, one of their counsellors is a pharmacist. Not all ABs are incompatible with breastfeeding.

here

Oh poor you :(

Do they have a bfing counsellor at the hospital who can advise?

I will ask someone later.

I second the advice to get in touch with the breastfeeding network- docs can be woefully uneducated about which meds are compatible with bf and I have heard of and read many threads on here where women later found out they could have continued bf when told otherwise. Poor you, I hope things improve quickly.

Oh and see if you can speak to a phatrmacist, not a midwife- they will have a much better idea- doubt many mw's would have a scooby

pharmacist, not phatrmacist!

I had this last April/May (pancreatitis and bottle refusing EBF 6 m/o [no solids either under paeds. advice]).

I hired a NCT hospital grade pump and pumped 8-12 times a day. I was anti-biotics after ante-natal not being able/wanted to lend out a pump full time and only able to pump twice a day so got start of mastitis. I was also on buscopan, diclofenac, IV paracetamol and ora-morph/IV morphine and still gave my milk to my DD3.

Ask (aka insist) that the Drs check your meds with Dr Thomas Hale's Medications & Mothers' Milk reference book NOT the BNF. The hospital pharmacy will have a copy. This is THE reference book for bfing/drug compatability the latest edition is 2010 or they can check his internet forum for health professionals here.

DD3 was brought in twice a day for feeds and had the rest by bottle (sort of she licked the milk of the teats) and is still bfing today at 14m/o even after I was in for another week when my gall bladder was taken out.

So things to do:-

Get Drs to check meds with Hale.

Get Post-natal to give you a electric pump (pref. double) as hand/manual expressing is just too tiring when you have pancreatitis and you need to rest (which you can do with an electric).

If an pump is not forth coming you may have to hire one from NCT or Express yourself Mums or Anawiz or Poshmums.

Express as much as you feel up to (at least as many times as DS would normally take feeds).

Have someone bring DS on to the ward for bfs - the Matron may have to agree this in advance but don't take no for an answer unless they can give you a good answer why not e.g. outbreak of c.difficile, etc.

Have a cool bag filled with ice packs if the ward will not store the milk in their fridge.

Good luck and hope you recover swiftly. PM if you need anything.

:( :(

Highly unlikely you cannot bf - esp with a baby of 10 mths who is way beyond vulnerable newborn.

Excellent advice from TruthSweet! Hope you manage things.

Op cancelled today. Not seen ds today. Dh has coped. I don't have op tomorrow and i am well enough, I will insist I can feed him. X

On 500 metroniadazle~so need to find someone to stop for long enough to ask.

Poor you - hope you are better soon.

I was given metronidazole by my GP (3 tablets daily, can't recall how strong each tablet was) for mastitis when DS was newborn (well, 2 weeks) and no one seemed to think this was a problem. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along in a minute though!

If you mean metronidazole, you can check it out here toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search and share what you find with the doctor - does not seem to be an issue from the detailed info, and it points out that babies get the same meds, anyway.

Horrifying to think you have been told 'virtually impossible to bf' without sharing any info with you :(

Please get this checked out properly. Often doctors don't know the effects of drugs on bfing and are overcautious when there's no need.

Here's my story if it helps. I was on a massive dose of IV metronidazole plus another IV antibiotic I've forgotten the name of for 24 hours when DD was only a week old, followed by oral metronidazole for a week. I was told it was fine to breastfeed.

DD had a bit of diarrhoea whilst I was on the ABs, but that was all. DD is now a very healthy thriving girl and we are still bfing nearly a year later,

i second to suggestion to check with BF helpline, i managed to feed within 6 hours of a general aneasthetic!

this is NOT the end of BF for you

you need a pump so can you can keep the supply moving when baby not with you, pump amn dump if needs be

when not with him, he is old enough to have formula and solids

this i hope will be a blip in your BF, not the end

dont worry if he has less BF for a few days, he will survive

good luck, this shall pass, and focus on getting better x

Wont lend me an express machine as now anxloswd ward Due to d and v bug. Dh Brining one from home later. Think they said something About Me being on augmentin as well.

I breastfeed through IV and oral antibiotics amoxocillion and metronidazol and a GA (expressed once after waking up) and my ds was a newborn. My consultant encouraged met to breastfeed through it all so i am shocked at your hospitals attitude, I suspect they are just very uneducated!

Also maybe think about some pro-biotics my antibiotics gave me a terrible gut for weeks because I forgot to take some.

Also Good Luck!

They can usually find antibiotics that are safe to bf on if you ask. I've recently been on IV clindomycin and v high doses of oral erythromycin and they were fine for bf-ing. My consultant had a big book of info on this sort of thing, so I'm sure the detailsare widely available. luckily we were given a pivate room in hospital so ds could stay with me and i continued to bf as much as poss and express when i couldn't. thematernity ward may be able to lend you a breast pump. if not, the medela swing pump really saved the day for me. you can only pump one side at a time, but it's exactly the same action as the hospital one they let me use when i was an inpatient.

I have done my expressing today. Got a pump from home. Wont allow dc in as closed ward due to a d and v bug. Really want to see him. Miss him so much. X

Good luck - I hope things start to go more smoothly soon. As others have said, try to track down a doctor who is properly knowledgable about breastfeeding if people start to put up obstacles. I can imagine how much you're longing to see DS

pump/hand express enough to keep at least some of your supply going, you can build up more milk again when you go home.

I had a 5 day hospital stay when DD was 5 months, couldn't feed her for 3 days of that. I expressed to keep supply going and got her back exclusively bf within a couple of weeks. She had formula while I couldn't feed her (I couldn't pump enough, it was too uncomfortable due to the op I'd had, I just managed to pump enough to keep supply going) and although she hated the bottle initially she came to terms with it.
I'm still feeding her now at 18 months and I'm sure she's forgotten all about it

Due to ward being closed due to bug I have not seen ds for 3 days and if they don't do op tomorrow I will have to break out.