A mother in her late thirties called me to ask whether she could take a daily
aspirin for the anti-coagulant effect.  Her baby is just a couple of months
old and almost fully nursing; she gives formula less than once a day.  She
complains of recurring fatigue--can't climb the stairs without getting tired.
 This is her second baby.  After the first, she says, "my whole body totally
changed" in terms of stamina.  She had a thorough cardiac workup and
everything was fine, but her blood lipids are not great.
Her concern here is the risk of Reyes syndrome for the baby.  Also decreased
clotting in the baby, although I doubt that there would be that much effect
at the dosage she's talking about. I remember one case report of a baby who
became acidotic when the mother was on a regimen of frequent and regular
doses of aspirin for arthritis; again, her dose would be too small for that,
I'd guess.

What do you-all think?  Tom Hale's comments are based on aspirin as an
analgesic, and there are good alternatives for that usage.  If she weren't
nursing, she could make this decision to self-medicate with aspirin, and no
one would care.  But in this case, I wonder
     a) IS she risking Reyes syndrome?
     b) If she's THAT fatigued, is it just from the stress of dealing with
two little kids---probably pretty much by herself, since that's how we do it
in America---or should she consult her doctor...maybe her thyroid is off, or
some other physical cause is making her tired.

Chris