Contraindications to Breastfeeding
Galactosemia in the infant
- Do not feed any breastmilk to your baby if he is diagnosed with the extremely rare disease called galactosemia.
- All babies in the USA are tested for this disease as part of the supplemental newborn screening program.
- It sometimes takes a few days to get these results.
- When you are contacted, you must replace breastmilk feedings with an infant formula without lactose or galactose.
Infections in the Mother
Do not feed your breastfmilk to your baby if you are infected with these diseases:
- HIV
- Note: In resource limited countries without access to formula, breastfeeding is often necessary to sustain life. Research in the USA is starting to show that HIV positive mothers can breastfeed if the mom's viral load is undetectable, and if both she and her baby take HIV medications.
- Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I or type II infection
- untreated brucellosis
- suspected or confirmed Ebola viurs disease
Hepatitis in the mother
If you have hepatitis B, ie HBsAg positive, you can breastfeed right away after delivery. By 12 hours of life, your baby needs to get the hepatitis B vaccine and hepatitits B immune globulin.If you have hepatitis C, do not nurse or feed your breastmilk from a breast that has cracked or bleeding nipples, until they are healed. If your nipples are healthy, you can breastfeed, even though hepatitis C can be detected in maternal milk.
Herpes
Do not nurse or feed your breastmilk from a breast that has active herpetic lesions.
You can breastfeed from the normal breast as long as the lesions on the other breast are completely covered.
Substance abuse
Do not breastfeed while using illicit opioids, cocaine, and phencyclidine, due to their potential effect on the infant’s long-term neurobehavioral development.
- However, if you use opiods while pregnant, it's recommended that you breastfeed in order to lessen the possible withdrawal symptoms in your newborn. Some newborns might still need medications to treat withdrawal.
5/23