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epilepsy meds and breastfeeding
Thu, 04/22/2004 - 17:48Topic: Women With Epilepsy
We have all read it's safe, but how many *can*? Could you run a poll to see.....1) yes/nowere you able to breastfeed?2) yes/nodid you have supply problems?3) List of common meds or fill-inwhat medication were you on?I am on Lamictal and had *no* supply - unlike anyone else in 3 generations of my family. Since Reglan (the drug to increase supply) gives you seizures, I am wondering if our drugs to turn off seizures turns off breastmilk as well.
Comments
RE: epilepsy meds and breastfeeding
Submitted by zoeph on Fri, 2004-04-23 - 23:13
When any one sees my gorgeous daughter who at 19 months is an active toddler with a vocabulary twice that of her peers....... it's no wonder Lamictal and 4mg of foliate is the current cocktail of choice for our crowd : ) Bottlefeeding her Enfamil Lipil seems to have worked out just fine : )But being a new mom is hell, and we spent a lot of time, energy, money, and STRESS, and SLEEP, over trying to breastfeed. Epileptic women already have more than enough to worry about, and I would hate for anyone to go through what we did. If women just knew up front that it looks like Lamictal is a good choice for pregnancies but...... it dries up your breast milk..... we would have a choice. We could plan. Our kids would be well fed from day one (My daughter dropped a lot of weight and got jaundice. Not to mention no one wants to starve a baby!)I keep thinking of writing that Dr. Mark Yerby who seems to really research our issues. Alternately, there are no updates on his site for 2004.
RE: epilepsy meds and breastfeeding
Submitted by seeker2 on Fri, 2004-04-23 - 11:21
Hi.I was sorry to hear that that your own experience of breast feeding didn't work out,as the mom's in the link above did.It happens to the best of mother's...Not what you want you want to know right now.....You want to know about the 'turn off'...Guess we all do for future generations that come after us...As a new friend of mine says, time-it's a precious gift you can give the ones you love-and you can give that your new baby,even if you couldn't give the milk...A good reply to a good question,thanks for asking it,and until then-hope this link helps for any woman on Lamictal,or even thinking of getting pregnant.http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/programs/wei/familyplanning.cfm
RE: epilepsy meds and breastfeeding
Submitted by tibet2 on Fri, 2004-04-23 - 01:37
hi, it's always disappointing when things don't work out as we planned. i'm sorry you had a tough time of it. the most important thing about feeding your baby is that you feed him/her with love. that really is the most important thing. mother's love is so much more important than mother's milk. sometimes we might confuse the two. or feel inadequate about not being able to nurse the baby. but the baby just wants to be loved ;-) i'm sure love isn't in short supply. since you wanted a poll - i have 3 children and took mysoline 750 mg during all three pregnancies and i nursed them all with no problems. lamictal is a much newer drug than my drug. so maybe there isn't as much research on it.