Hi, Star: Amiodarone is a nasty drug. According to Hale, it can take anywhere from 26-107 days for an adult to eliminate the drug, so who knows how long it could hang around in baby's system. And there is potential for the drug to accumulate in various body organs. There are also some other kind of bizarre side effects - long term use causes the person's skin to turn blue and it is recommended that one avoid sun exposure, even for short periods of time. According to Hale, the chief concerns are hypothyroidism in the baby as well as possible cardiovascular issues. In the adult, these include further arrhythmias (amiodarone is an anti-arrhytmic) and congestive heart failure. I myself was on this drug for about a year-didn't work, probably because my mind wouldn't let it, I was so concerned about these side effects. So...for the last 2 and a half years I've been on an even more dangerous drug dofetilide (Tikosyn) that does indeed work for me with virtually no side effects (Yeah!). The danger lies in starting the drug. I was put in the CCU for 4 days - the 1st dose is OK, but in the words of my cardiologist "the 2nd dose could kill you". So, they prefer to very closely monitor a person when starting them on this particular medication. I did discuss Class III anti-arrhythmics with Tom Hale at the ILCA conference (not that I'm planning on nursing any more babies). He had heard of dofetilide but wasn't very familiar with it - he recommended in these types of situations to work with a pharmicist who is willing and able to titrate the exact amount of drug that will appear in the mother's milk, so the most accurate decision can be made regarding breastfeeding. Hope this helps. Sorry for the length but I have become known as the Cardiac Queen in my circle of friends and colleagues because of my up close and personal experiences. Pam Hirsch, RN,BSN,CLC Clinical Lead, Lactation Services Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital Barrington, IL USA Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html