MATERNAL DRUG-TREATMENT AND HUMAN-MILK BANKING

We studied prospectively during one year temporary drug use by mothers donating breast milk to assess the problem of drug treatment of donor s. Sixty-four of the 284 mothers (22.5%) had to abstain from donating due to medication. The indication was infection in 50/56 treatments (8 9.3%). Antimicrobial agents were prescribed 44/52 times (84.6%). The c hannelling of milk from mothers in early phases of lactation to premat ure and newborn infants was identified as a special risk situation, if mothers on medication are not excluded. The limited number of such do nors leads to use of milk unpooled or pooled to small volumes with inc reased risk for adverse effects to babies as a consequence. We recomme nd a wash-out period of 5 half-lives of the drug after the last ingest ed dose. For the majority of drugs in this study, with some important exceptions, a wash-out period of 1 day was sufficient.