Greetings, friends,

In a recent update/appendum to Briggs (July 1994) fluoxetine hydrochloride - akaProzac - is listed as contraindicated with breastfeeding.

In personal correspondence with Phillip Anderson (UCSD Pharmacy school) he
states that he doesn't have a lot of concern about the older nursling, but
that it is not a good drug to be on while nursing younger infants.  He speculate
s that 6 months may or may not be an age where his comfort level goes up.

At one point he was working on a paper for publication, but it did not work
out.  In a case study which appeared in J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
32:6, Nov 1993 p1253-55, a case study reports a possible association between
Prozac and colic, with fairly high blood levels of both fluoxetine and its
metabolite in the infant's blood (babe 3 weeks old with mom taking 20 mgdaily).

It is important to remember that Prozac inhibits the central nervous systems'
uptake of serotonin.  Anderson states he is very uncomfortable with any
medication that might mess around with the cns of an infant.

Back to Anderson's unpublished paper, he looked at 11 mothers taking Prozac
at 20 mg/day.  The levels of Prozac were measure in their milk and it was found
to be less that 10% of mother's dose.  None of the babies had any problems
during the study.

Hope this gives us all more food for thought.

Cindy Smith
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