pumping whilst on antibiotics

[Fetacat]

I have a corneal ulcer and went to A&E this evening where I was given an eye cream chloramphenicol. The doctor told me I couldn't breastfeed on it and would have to express and dump and then wait 48 hours for it to leave my system. However he then started going militant about how he was bottle fed and it never did him any harm and whilst i was leaving even said '2 weeks of formula won't harm your baby' i'm not sure where the 2 weeks came from as before he had said 2 days!

I'm okay giving him formula as he is mixed fed anyway with 2 bottles of formula a day but this was after a rocky start to BF where he had 13% weightloss, rehospitalised and was mainly formula fed for the first 3 weeks but i gradually increased his BF to the point at 8 weeks he is mainly breastfed and its been hard work to get here so am worried how a few days of pumping and dumping will affect my supply. i know it isn't as effective as suckling but can a few days still be manageable to get back to before? I am taking domperidone anyway so thought i could up my dosage of that just incase.

I am going to go to the GP on monday morning and see if they can give me anything bf friendly as an alternative but cant risk my eyesight by not taking anything until then.

Has anyone else managed to pump and dump for medication and then returned to bf as before?

Thanks xx

I had two different types of Antibiotics for Mastitis, whilst BF ( 2 different occasions) so definitely ask GP for something compatible.

The vast majority of drugs are not an issue in BFing, but the guidance in the uk is very, very conservative.
The Breastfeeding Network has a series of fact sheets on drugs that are safe, and can be contacted by email here

They can advise you on appropriate medicines, so you can go to your GP with some info, as GPs ate not always helpful either.

Thanks! I have emailed them. I did my own quick nhs evidence search and they do link it to aplastic anemia so am cautious.

Hopefully the BFN folks can find you some suitable medication! (I think the scary stuff I saw about chloramphenicol was for mothers taking it orally, I presume you must get a much lower systemic dose from a cream?) And I'm sure a couple of days of pumping won't dent your supply too badly - do you have or can you borrow a good pump?

To update a pharmacist from the BFN replied to my email today and said the eye ointment doesn't get into the milk so I am fine to continue! Very happy. Thanks for the tip!

Glad to hear it. I suspected that was the case, but happy you got proper confirmation.