Arly:  Ruth Lawrence's Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession,
1994, p486, states: "When maternal chickenpox occurs within 6 days of
delivery or immediately postpartum and no lesions are present in the
neonate, mother and infant should be isolated separately.  Only half the
infants born to mothers who developed the disease 7 to 15 days before
delivery will develop the disease.  They should receive zoster immune
globulin (ZIG) if available.  If no lesions develop by the time the
mother is noninfectious, the infant and the mother may be sent home
together.  When the mother and infant can be together, the child can be
breastfed....Antibodies appear in the milk within 48 hours of the disease
onset, so that the infant can be breastfed as soon as it is appropriate
for the mother and infant to be together."  In her table on page 488,
however, she says to "administer VZIG to neonates born to mothers with
onset of chickenpox <5 days before delivery and isolate separately from
mother.  Send home with mother if no lesions develop by the time mother
is noninfectious."  The mother is noninfectious when no new vesicles have
appeared for 72 hours and all lesions have progressed to the stage of
crusts.  Bottom line, if the mother has active infection, she needs to be
isolated from the baby regardless of infant feeding method.  Alicia.
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