Pump and dump milk on Zoloft?

[Ambteenz]

Dear Dr Hale,
I visited my psychiatrist today who previously suggested to dump the milk on the peak hours. I m taking 100mg Zoloft. I told him that it's not necessary but he doesn't seems to agree.

He said long terms affects of Zoloft are not known and in order to avoid the possible long term effects it is much more safer to throw the breast milk after 7 to 8 hours of the Zoloft consumption.

Please advise what should I do? I am very confused. Many Thanks.

[admin]

Ambteenz,

Only 0.4-2.2 % of your dose of Zoloft transfers into breast milk. It does peak at 7-8 hours but the half-life is 26 hours. It takes 6 half-lives for this medication to be out of the blood. This medicine works by keeping a steady state in your blood so that there are no peaks or valleys just a constant level. The first week you may have the peaks, but after that there will be about the same amount of medicine in your blood and milk at any point during the day so there is no reason to pump and dump. These are our recommendations. We do not have any long term data on this medication, but we believe that since it has such a minimal transfer into breast milk, and if your infant is not symptomatic it is not enough to affect them. It is ultimately up to you and your Dr to make the final decision. Monitor your infant for sedation or irritability, not waking to feed/poor feeding and weight gain.

Sandra Lovato R.N.
InfantRisk Center
806-352-2519