I received an LLL help call this morning from a 31-year-old mother who is
breastfeeding a 16-month-old girl.  The mother has a type of arthritis
(avascular necrosis) in her jaw and hip. It is so sever that she will need
a hip replacement in the immediate future. She has noted a big increase in
her pain level over the past four months, and of course, she is limited as
to pain medication because she is lactating.  Her doctor suggested that
breastfeeding may be aggravating her arthritis (because of diverting her
calcium intake to the baby), but could find no research on it.

I checked the new Breastfeeding Answer Book, Lawrence, and Riordan and
Auerbach books, but could only find brief passages about rheumatoid
arthritis (which is not the same as what this mother has). I also searched
the Lactnet database for the past year and could only find a couple of
references to drugs for arthritis, nothing on whether breastfeeding can
increase symptoms. I will also be checking with my LLL resources but
wondered if any of you can help.

Background: The mother is allergic to ibuprofin. She eats lots of yogurt
and Yums daily to increase her calcium intake.

The mother does now want to wean, and neither does the baby. On the other
hand, her pain is becoming unbearable.  She would be in a much better
position to decide what to do if (a) she knew whether breastfeeding can
indeed cause her symptoms to worsen and if so, why; (b) if there are any
pain medications that might help her and not hurt her daughter (we looked
up the relatively new drug Ultram (tramadol HCL) in Hale's newest edition,
and it said 1% comes through the mother's milk, but it is not recommended
due to lack of research--does anyone know more on this one??), and (c) if
there are any alternative therapies, dietary suggestions, or other ideas to
help her.

Such a severe case of this type of arthritis in someone so young is rare,
so she has very few resources.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions for this.

Sue Ann Kendall


Sue Ann Kendall, Kynan and Declan's mother, LLLLeader  Champaign, IL USA
LLLI Web Site Manager, LLL of IL District Advisor, [log in to unmask]
LLLI Web: http://www.prairienet.org/llli/ http://www.prairienet.org/~sak
Charter Member: Wise Women of the Web      Co-Owner: SAH-FEMLIST and TLC
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