Dear colleagues, Regarding an earlier discussion on Lactnet concerning chicken pox and shingles, I have some new information from the NJ LLL Health Professional Conference. Dr. Allan Arbeter, the head of the Dept. of Pediatrics, Einstein Med Center in Philly who specializes in infectious diseases and was one of the researchers on the chickenpox vaccine presented this information. He stated that if the mother has shingles but not in areas where the baby would come in direct contact with the lesions, the baby will be adequately protected by transplacentally transferred antibodies and the mother can breastfeed. On the other hand, if either the mother has chickenpox, or she has shingles on an area where the baby would come in contact with the lesions, then the mother should not breastfeed. In the case of the mother contracting chickenpox, she would not have had immunity to pass onto the infant. In the case of the mother having shingles (which as has been discussed previously is a reactivation of the chicken pox virus (herpes zoster)) where the baby will contact the lesions, the transferred immunity could be inadequate and overwhelmed by the virus. I hope this is helpful. Sarah Chaikin, IBCLC [log in to unmask]