Two week gap in breastfeeding - possible?

[Ganton]

My 7 month old little girl was exclusively breastfed until 2 days a go. It's been going really well and I was determined to feed her for a long time to come yet.

Unfortunately, I was admitted to hospital on Sunday with a serious infection and one of the antibiotics (Metronidazole) is pretty strong. The doctors said it was compatible with breastfeeding but I took the decision not to give her my expressed milk while I was having that medication intravenously. I'm now on a 12 day course of the oral version of the sane medication.

My plan was to wait the full 8 hours until my next dose is due so that the concentration in milk is as low as possible and feed her then. I'd do that twice a day and give her formula for all other feeds, but now I'm worrying that even that may not be very good for her and maybe I should not feed her at all whilst on this medication.

I really don't want her to lose the ability to breastfeed though. Any thoughts on whether a two week hap will be detrimental to her ability to feed again?

 

[Natasha2605]

I think if you didn't BF at all for two weeks then your milk may well dry up as you suspect. I'm not sure if maybe you'd be at an increased risk of blocked ducts etc too which isn't something you really need right now!

If your baby is happy having formula in between her BFs then I'd go with that plan. Your milk supply with adjust. When I'm working Freya does around 8hours without breastfeeding (she eats solids and maybe 2oz of formula) and I just give her a big feed when home and my milk supplies been fine - so far.

Hope you are feeling better soon xx

 

[Ganton]

Thanks for your reply. I'm not too concerned about my supply as I can express for the time that I'm taking medication. I've chucked a good 50oz down the sink in the last 2 days 😥 I'm more concerned that she'll just forget how to latch if I don't feed her at all for 2 weeks.

She's also had some difficulty gaining weight recently (she's only just tipped 15lb) and isn't massively keen on the bottle so I hope two weeks without any or only limited breastfeeds don't affect her too badly.