Decongestants

[ObviouslyOblivious]

Help! DS is 15 months and still BFing. In the past four weeks he's kindly given me two colds which have melted together into one glorious long period of snotty, congested, ickyness. I just can't get better.

He's feeding on average three times in 24 hours. I'm only taking paracetamol and sniffing a Vicks inhaler. I seem to recollect that decongestants are bad during breast feeding as they may affect supply. However when I've spoken to pharmacists in desperation they've said that the decongestant goes into the milk.

Which is right? And if it's the supply, surely my supply is established enough not to be affected by a couple of decongestant doses

THere's an ingredient in decongestants that can reduce milk supply. BFN have a good factsheet about cold drugs here. They also have a really good helpline specifically about medication and breastfeeding, they will be way more knowledgeable than your local pharmacist.

Have you tried a room humidifier? How about ibuprofen?

Thanks very much, that fact sheet is just what I was after