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. [log in to unmask]