 Dr.
Jane Morton,
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School
of Medicine, is an expert on nursing premature infants as well
as a
member of the Breastfeeding.com medical advisory board. Dr.
Morton has answered many of your breastfeeding questions.
Dr. Morton works one-on-one with new mothers at the
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University,
teaching moms how to breastfeed successfully. In 1997, Focus
Magazine named Dr. Morton one of the "Best Doctors in the
Bay Area," and she was again selected by her peers as one
of "Silicon Valley's Best Physicians" as reported in
The Sane Jose Magazine in 1999.
Can you breastfeed if you
have shingles?
| NAME: |
Glenda |
| BABY'S NAME: |
|
| BABY'S AGE: |
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Should
one discontinue breastfeeding if diagnosed with shingles? Don't
have all the details, but a co-worker was told to stop
breastfeeding for 14 days so she stopped completely
Dear
Glenda,
Shingles is a reactivation of chicken pox. People who are most
likely to develop shingles are those who had a very mild case of
chicken pox that did not adequately stimulate their immune
system. Usually, these are individuals who acquire the virus in
the first year of their lives. At this time, maternal antibody
is protecting the young child who does not have to mount as high
of a response to the infection as an older child would. Sometimes chicken pox is so mild in the first year of life that
there are no symptoms at all. Personally, I was totally unaware
as a pediatrician-mother than my older child developed chicken
pox sometime during the first year of her life.
If an individual with shingles is fairly intimately exposed to
an individual who has never had chicken pox and has no maternal
antibody protecting him, the exposed individual may well develop
chicken pox. So whether it makes sense to stop breastfeeding if
one has shingles would depend on a variety of issues. Is the
baby immunologically normal and not on drugs that may affect the
course of chicken pox (such as steroids)? Unlikely, but an
important point. Probably, this is a baby who is healthy and
protected by his mother's antibody. In this case, there would
be no real need to stop breastfeeding. Hope this is helpful.
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