Can I take ADHD medication while breastfeeding?

[frayble]

Can anyone advise?

I'm 30 years old, first time mum with a 6 month old breastfed baby.

I was on the CAHMS waiting list for ADHD diagnosis as a teenager before the wheels fell off and I ran away from home, ended up living in London homeless/in squats for several years before sorting my life out so never had a formal diagnosis.

I reached out to some private providers while pregnant however was told I couldn't start the medication while pregnant so there was no point pursuing a diagnosis until I was able to be treated.

I'm now desperate to start the diagnosis and treatment pathway, being a mum on no sleep really seems to have amplified the symptoms and I'm struggling to cope with the messiness/forgetfulness.

So, to get to the point, does anyone take medication while also breastfeeding? I don't want to spend hundreds of pounds on a diagnosis only to find I can't take the medication at the end of it anyway. Thanks in advance!

Yes you can :) But even if your doctor isn't happy and you wanted to wait, you can still go through the diagnosis process and then decide to wait on medication anyway. I was diagnosed in 2016 and then for various reasons (mostly pregnancy related) I did not take medication until 2023 - the diagnosis was still helpful, and personally I found the gap where I could really lean into self-education before I started medication to be very useful. Even though I wouldn't necessarily recommend 7 years.

TBH I find that my medication doesn't work very well if I have not had enough sleep. So I am not sure I would have wanted to take it with a very young baby. But as I didn't do that, I can't really compare. My youngest was nearly 2 by the time I started medication.