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  • Levofloxacin - worried mom

    Dear Professor Hale

    I would be so grateful if you could please be the one to answer my query below. Thank you!

    ​​​​​​I am still breastfeeding my 15 month old infant. She has never had a bottle of formula as she is allergic to dairy. Just over a month ago the Doctor prescribed me Levofloxacin 500 mg for 5 days for a bladder infection. He told me that it was safe to take while still breastfeeding as long as I waited a few hours after taking it to feed.

    I took the Levofloxacin and waited about 8 hours after taking it to breastfeed my baby. I had no idea about all the apparent risks with infant joints etc until after I had taken it and I went to a different Doctor for a check up and she was surprised to hear that I had breastfed whilst on Levofloxacin and she told me I should have read the package insert as quinilones are not used on children. Since then I have been constantly worried. I feel like a bad mom for exposing my baby to that risk. What if she has joint or muscle problems growing up because of what I did. What if I have weakened her bones in some way. Surely that antibiotic can't be good for little growing bones.

    The pediatrician told me he thinks it won't be a problem but I'm still so worried. I wish that I had not have taken the risk and I feel like such a bad mom. Please could I have your advice on the effects of Levofloxacin received by an infant through breastmilk? If only I had known about the Infant Risk Center before took the meds! I would have insisted on a safer antibiotic.

    Thanks so much

    Nikita

  • #2
    Nikita:

    Please stop worrying. Much of the information about Levofloxacin in pediatric patients has not been substantiated scientifically. Much of this old literature was done in dogs, not infants, and it has not proven to be so in human infants.

    When necessary, the fluoroquinolones have been used in children safely.

    So don't worry about it. There virtually no risk to your infant, particularly via milk.

    Tom Hale Ph.D.

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