I just looked at "A Review of the Medical Benefits and Contradictions to Breastfeeding in the United States" by Ruth Lawrence. It is a wonderful pamphlet published under the auspices of the US Dept of Health and Human Services. It is either free or very low cost and something everyone should have. (Info probably applies well to all industrialized nations) Information is presented succinctly and clearly. On page 31 there is a chart: Summary of Medical Contraindications to Breastfeeding in the United States. (This is not all of it - I left off some conditions and the whole class of environmental contaminants) Problem OK to Bf in US Conditions Acute infections diseases Yes HIV No Active TB Yes After 2 weeks of treatment Hep. A,B,C, Yes Venereal warts Yes Herpes viruses: cytomegalovirus Yes herpes simplex Yes Except if lesion on breast varicella-zoster Yes When past infectious stage Epstein-Barr Yes Toxoplasmosis Yes Mastitis Yes Lyme disease Yes Once treatment starts HTLV-1 No Medication/Prescription drugs Antimetabolites No Radiopharmaceuticals diagnostic Yes After compound clears plasma therapeutic No Drugs of abuse No Except cigarettes, alcohol Other medications Yes Drug-by-drug assesment If the chart doesn't come through properly - strep is certainly not on this list as a contraindication. Penicillin is also generally considered safe, although not specifically mentioned here. Sarah Friend Barnett LLLL, IBCLC Bronx (New York City), NY - [log in to unmask] " You are not obliged to finish the task, neither are you free to neglect it." R. Tarfon *********************************************** 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