Ok, this sounds really odd to me--anybody ever hear of anything similar?  I
have searched the archives under nitrous oxide, novocain, and mercury
fillings and turned up nothing relevant.  BTW--when I'm searching the
archives on the net, do I get all the archives or just the recent half?

This mom and her husband are both chiropractors--really try to stay away
from any medical interventions of any kind and very health conscious.  Baby
is about 7 months old.  Mom had an infected tooth that needed work.  (Of
course, I had assured her that local anesthetic was of no consequence to
her nursing baby.)  Dentist tried injecting novocain which didn't take, so
she had several injections, still with no results, then he used nitrous
oxide gas.  Dental work was at noon, and baby had been absolutely fine all
morning.  About 30 seconds into the first nursing after mom got home, baby
started breaking out into a rash that spread over baby's head and trunk.
The rash gradually faded over 2-3 days.  Also after that first nursing the
baby vomited, and vomited one more time that night.  Mom stopped the
nursing for a time and used pumped milk, and also contacted a wholistic
dentist who advised taking selenium to bind with the mercury that perhaps
had been released.

I have never heard of anything like this, but it sure sounded like it was
the dental work that sparked this whole episode--seems too closely tied to
have been coincidence, doesn't it?  Mom is wondering what did it.  The half
life of nitrous is <3 minutes according to Hale so should have been
completely gone, and I've probably talked to hundreds of mothers who had
fillings messed with using novocaine and have never heard of any problems.
Ideas?

Becky Krumwiede, RN, IBCLC, Appleton, Wisconsin
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