Dear Friends: Jan B. asks some good questions: "Where does it say that IBCLCs cannot recommend OTC drugs/herbs? Let's start there. We are making an assumption that recommending OTC drugs/herbs is "prescribing." My dictionary defines "prescribing" as in advise the use of a medicine, esp as in "prescription drugs", recommend, esp. as a benefit, "prescribed a change of scenery", or "lay down or impose authoritatively." If I, as a licensed healthcare professional make a recommendation to a mother that she take a specific drug, herb or remedy, she will hear my recommendation as authority. I have to be careful because I can loose my license. I am not legally permitted to prescribe for that reason. Think of this situation from a public health perspective, which means aiming for the lowest common denominator of safety. Many lay people will take a practitioner's recommendation as an absolute direction, which is why one must be careful about such things. What I would do for myself (which includes using homeopathy for my family), I can not do for others because I don't have the official recognition of authority. If the LC recommends a bath or a warm compress or an ice pack....no great harm can be done. Whereas if the LC recommends a drug or an herb, even if over the counter and commonly available, and the mother has a reaction or overdoses and her baby gets sick or the herb masks a serious condition, the LC will be liable. The trained person is supposed to know better. None of us get training in recommending drugs or herbs. I don't see in it our scope of practice, either. Warmly, Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI, CSTP Elkins Park (a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; northeastern USA) supporter of the WHO Code and the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html