Oh no! I drank lemsip like it was going out of fashion last week...

[MayimBialik]

...and have since discovered you shouldn't take it if breast feeding. Why is this? I think I would be panicking more if I had a newborn but DS is one now and only feeds at night and seems to be absolutely fine.

Can anyone reassure / shed any light on why lemsip isn't suitable for BFing mothers?

I have no idea. I suspect it's fine :) only paracetamol after all

At a guess I would think that the pseudoephadrine (sp?), may come through in breast milk?

It's not just paracetamol, it also contains phenylephrine hydrochloride. This is thought by some to reduce milk supply but Kellymom (a great source of breastfeeding information) says there is no real evidence for that.

You do need to check everything you take, cough syrups for example are not recommended. They're all medications even if 'just' cold remedies.

Pseudoephedrine is not actually risky to the baby, but there does appear to be a risk to the milk supply.

toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT

Lemsip has phenylephrine hydrochloride which may decrease supply.

I would think - common sense only I am not a pharmacist but a bfc - that a one year old milk supply is impregnable to the tiny amounts of phenlylephrine in lemsip.

When you say lots did you keep within the recommended amounts?

What Postman said; no risk to baby but possible negative impact on your supply. I suspect you'd have noticed by now if it had affected you.

Thanks for the replies. Big relief that it's not the baby that's affected and at this stage it's not a huge problem if my milk supply drops for a few days.

I was very stupid - I sent DH out for the lemsip and assumed it was just paracetamol. Took it within the normal limits but for a couple of days I had it every 4 hours. It was only when I went to pick up a new pack that I read the box. Plonker. After a year of BFing too!