To :  Laurie
Re :  Drugs of Abuse and breastfeeding

I seem to get this same question often from my local agencies.  I generally
believe that if the mom wishes to breastfeed and will submit to ocassional drug
screens, that it is fine for her to breastfeed as long as she is not HIV
positive and does not use IV drugs.

She should be reminded,  that drugs of abuse do pass into milk, and will stay
in her infants body much longer than in hers.  For instance, after using
cocaine she will probably be drug screen positive for 2-3 days,  whereas her
infant could be drug screen positive for 7-14 days.  Marijuana may stay in an
infant for up to a month or longer, slowly leaking out of the fat tissue to the
urine.

So warn her that there is no way for her to escape detection, because we can
detect the drugs for long periods in her infants urine.

Regards
Tom Hale, Ph.D.