When should you avoid breastfeeding?

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Dr. Shahenaz Hanafi Hassan, a Specialist Pediatrician at Middle East Hospital, provides crucial advice on when breastfeeding may need to be avoided to ensure the health and safety of both mother and baby.

According to Dr. Shahenaz, breastfeeding should be avoided if the infant is diagnosed with classic galactosemia, a condition where the baby cannot metabolize galactose properly. Mothers with HIV, she added, should refrain from breastfeeding if they are not on antiretroviral therapy (ART) or if they are on ART but have not achieved or maintained sustained viral suppression during pregnancy, delivery, or postpartum.

Diseases

She emphasised that breastfeeding is also contraindicated for mothers infected with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I or II, those using illicit drugs such as opioids, PCP, or cocaine, and those with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus disease. In situations where breastfeeding should be temporarily avoided, mothers infected with untreated brucellosis should hold off until appropriate treatment is administered.

Similarly, those taking certain medications or undergoing diagnostic imaging with radiopharmaceuticals should not breastfeed during these times.

Mothers with an active herpes simplex virus infection with lesions on the breast or those infected with the mpox virus should also temporarily avoid breastfeeding.

Appropriate treatment

Dr. Shahenaz said that for mothers who should temporarily avoid breastfeeding but can provide expressed milk, those with untreated, active tuberculosis should resume breastfeeding only after completing appropriate treatment for at least two weeks and confirming they are no longer contagious.