Lead will very likely get into the breastmilk.  Although lead is a large
atom, it is still very small compared to most biomolecules.  Lead also very
readily attaches to many proteins and distributes to all body tissues.  The
mother's serum lead level is not a good indicator of how much lead is still
in her body if she has had a low exposure to lead (not lead overdose).  The
serum levels will be elevated for only a short time after exposure, but the
lead will remain in the tissues for longer.  (Usually  soft-tissue turnover
for lead is approxiamately 120 days.)  A determination of lead
concentration in the breastmilk should not be difficult, but you need to
keep in mind that even if the concentration is very low, the baby is
drinking a significant amount of milk, so the amount of lead ingested could
still be significant.  The breastmilk may need to be concentrated and then
analyzed, but again, this should not be difficult.

I don't know anything about treatments, so perhaps one of the MDs out there
could comment on whether it would be possible to do a treatment of
chelation therapy to lower the mother's lead levels more quickly.  I know
chelation therapy is used for lead toxicity, but I don't know about side
effects, or how effective it would be if the mother does not have very high
levels

 Donna J. Spannaus-Martin, Ph.D., MT (ASCP)
 Assistant Professor
 Clinical Laboratory Sciences
 University of Tennessee, Memphis