Breastfed 21mo, may have to stop for 2 days due to surgery and drugs, hand holding/ advice please?

[diyqueen]

Dd is 21mo and still a very enthusiastic breastfeeder (every couple of hours in the day and a couple of times at night at the mo). I was pg with dc2 but am miscarrying, been going on for a couple of weeks and sac still not out and surgery (erpc) looking more and more likely in the next week or so. Drs have said I will need to stop breast feeding for a couple of days due to having to have misoprostol to dilate my cervix as dd was elcs for breech. I've decided not to have medical management as you have the same drugs over several days and I'd need to stop for a week, could see that being the end of bf and I can't face losing that too at the moment :-( Please someone give me some advice/experience of stopping bf for a couple of days with a v clingy toddler, I know she will cry and cry when I refuse her and it will break my heart :-(

Misoprostol not considered to be a problem here: [http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT]] . You can also call the Breastfeeding Network's drugsline (google for number) and share the info with your docs.

Surgery would be done as an outpatient - yes? So if there is no prob with the drugs (and do check, obv) then there would be no need to stop bf except for the short period you are in hospital.

Hope this helps!

toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT sorry this is the link.

That's interesting, thanks for that, the doctors at the hospital were adamant that I shouldn't breast feed for 2 days so I don't know what to think now. iI will look up and call the helpline too, am feeling more hopeful now. The hospital couldn't recall doing this procedure on a nursing mother before, find that hard to believe...

It's always good to check this sort of stuff out for yourself, and then ask the doctors what they think. It's actually very rare that breastfeeding needs to be suspended or stopped because of medication, and even if there is a risk of some sort (and looking at the info on lact-med, this seems to be negligable), it's often modified by the age of the baby (you'd be more concerned about a tiny, pre-term baby than a big healthy toddler, for instance). In any case, you should be able to decide for yourself, once you have the info. The docs cannot force you to suspend bf!

So sorry to hear about your m/c and definitely follow up on the drug, I am constantly surprised by the ignorance/unwillingness to actually look things up of the medical profession with regard to what's safe for breastfeeding. I very nearly weaned DS1 at two months because some fool locum GP told me there were no BF-safe antidepressants for PND. :( Fortunately I got a second opinion.

If it turns out you do need to stop feeding for a day or two, your supply is almost certainly established enough to just keep trucking along until you start feeding again, though you'll probably need to pump for comfort. I was away for a weekend when my son was the same age, and away for work for nearly a week soon after, and both times we resumed feeding with no problems. No helpful advice on how to deal with your toddler, as my DS1 wasn't feeding nearly as frequently as yours (just morning and bedtime), but he was apparently happy enough with a lot of distraction and daddy cuddles.

Sorry about your m/c :( :(

And yes, what tiktok said about the difference between teeny weenies and big toddlers - my GP happily prescribed me a particular strong antibiotic when DS1 was two that I wouldn't have been recommended to take when he was tiny.

It's not quite the same, but i had a mmc when dd1 was 17 months and i was still feeding her. I had some kind of general anaesthetic procedure (not sure what tbh ), although i didn't need any cervix-related drugs.

They wanted to give me some prophylactic antibiotics afterwards, but they didn't because of the breastfeeding. They were very accommodating about offering me a breastpump from the neonatal ward next door, although it wasn't really necessary so i didn't bother.

Would second it not affecting your supply much if you only stop for a couple of days. And there was much more milk afterwards than there had been when i was still 'pregnant'.

Sorry for your mc. X.

I decided to stop bf suddenly at 20 months due to my sons illness.
During the days keep her busy and out as much as possible (is there someone else who can help you with this?) if she uses bf to fall asleep for naps get her into the buggy and out for a walk to help her nod off,
Do you have a spot you normally bf? ( I always used the same spot on the sofa) if you do don't sit there.
If she bfs to get off to sleep at night can your OH take her out on car/ buggy till she nods off.
Have favourite snacks/ treats / toys / tv shows ready to distract, overuse of any of these for 2 days won't do her any harm.
Waking in the night will be the hardest, have expressed milk or water ready to offer. I offered water, which didn't go down to well but he would nod off again after 5 mins.
Good luck.

Thanks everyone. I'm hopeful now that I won't have to stop for so long and will really be doing my research and talking to the doctors again if the worst happens and I have to resort to erpc. I'm so glad I asked this on here now.