I share Jan's concerns about suggestions of herbs to treat conditions in
nursing mothers.  So often there is a perception that just because it is
natural, no harm can befall mother or baby from herbs.  They really ought to
be considered as drugs and treated with respect and a certain degree of
healthy skepticism. (ie One ought search the lit for adverse affects on
nursing infants, etc)

  One of the things which bothers me is the lack of discussion of dosage,
the lack of discussion of interactions with other drugs or herbs mother may
already be using, and the lack of concern over the purity of the
preparation.  I heard Dr. Tierona LowDog speak at the UN of NM conf. this
past Spring, and she made the point that unless the herbal prep. was labeled
with the word "Standardized" there was no telling how much dirt, mold,
impurities, etc were in the preparation, nor was there any evidence that the
"dosage" was what it said it was on the bottle.

I had a mother last week who is a neonatal nurse by profession, and who
takes several herbal remedies for various reasons tell me that she had been
advised by a local herbalist  to cont. taking a preparation containing
licorice root and anise.  She had been assured it was safe for nursing
mothers.  A ref. printed in the N Engl J Med, 1968 describes adverse affects
of large amounts of licorice root which include hypertension and cardiac
arrest. Anise passes into breastmilk and can cause neurological sx in babies.
The same person also advised her to give the baby herbal teas by mouth for
colic.  One of the tea ingredients was peppermint.  I thought I recalled a
discussion here on Lactnet discouraging the use of peppermint.  Am I
mis-remembering?  Mom has an oversupply problem which is the cause of the
colic, anyway, but I discouraged her from using the mint tea and told her I
would get back to her with more info.

I am not anti-herbal remedies.  I am currently taking echinacea for a cold
and recommend fenugreek and sage all the time.

Barbara


Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Private Practice, Austin, Texas
Owner, Lactnews On-Line Conference Page
http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html