I have been reading Lactnet for a while now but have only posted twice so I
will reintroduce myself briefly. I am a registered nurse and midwife and am
qualified in neonatal nursing. I have this year qualified as an IBCLC and I
work in a hospital maternity unit part as midwife and part as breastfeeding
adviser on the postnatal ward and neonatal unit.

I am looking after a mother who is breastfeeding her second baby. She has
fairly recently started to suffer from severe allergic reactions to certain
unknown substances in the environment but no food or drink. She takes
piriton (chlorphenamine/chlorpheniramine) occasionally.
She is worried about the histamine levels in her milk when she has an
allergy attack and isn't sure whether it is OK to breastfeed after such an
episode. It seems to me that as she takes antihistamines on these occasions
any rise in histamines in breastmilk (if they actually get into the milk)
should be countered by the antihistamines but I don't know. The mum has
given permission to ask you all the question.

Her second question is how long adrenaline (EpiPen) which she has had to
take rarely will stay in the milk. I have been unable to find anything on
this and have no access to Hale at the moment. She is aware that
breastfeeding is her only option to reduce allergies in her children and is
happy to do it.
I would be grateful if anybody can enlighten me on this subject.

Thanks in advance.

Lucy Simnett RGN, RM, IBCLC
Bracknell, UK

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