Clemastine or Tavegyl or Tavist

[Pia Ruohotie]

Hello,

I am looking for information about selective antihistamine Tavegyl / Tavist / Clemastine Fumurate which is new in Finland. The Basic Medicine Database says that it enters breastmilk in small amounts and is comparative with breastfeeding, it's farmacocinetics is not listed. The LactBase Database does not know this medicine at all and there seems not to be any information here in the Forum either.

Do You have any information about this?

I have a mom who got this yesteday in ER after severy nut allergy symptoms with Solu-Medrol. The ER doctor said that one week stop of breastfeeding is needed but later said that the mom can breastfeed partially. I quoted the Medicine Database info to the mother today but like to know more if there is some specific information regarding breastfeeding.

In Wikipedia about brand names:
Clemastine is an OTC drug, and is available as a syrup (0.5 mg per 5mL) and tablet (1mg). It is sold in the United States and Portugal under the brand names Tavist by Novartis and as Clemastine Fumurate by Novex, Perrigo, Sandoz, Silarx, Teva and Wockhardt. In United Kingdom, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Spain and other countries sold as Tavegil, in Russia, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Turkey and other countries as Tavegyl and in India as Taregyl.

Warmly,
Pia Ruohotie,
RN, IBCLC from Helsinki, Finland

[admin-james]

Hi, thanks for your post.

I was only able to find one case report in the literature of an infant who had problems when exposed to Clemastine through the breastmilk. This baby breastfed ad lib while the mother was taking 1 mg twice a day along with two potentially sedating anticonvulsants. The infant recovered completely when the mother skipped one dose of the medication. Samples were taken 20 hours after her last dose (one half-life) and the drug was undetectable in the baby's blood. Although this is not much information to act on, it would seem that one half-life is a reasonable and conservative waiting period for this medication, especially if your patient only received a one-time dose. Watch the child for sedation.

The solu-medrol has a half-life of only 3 hours and is not associated with immediate toxicity.

Please call us at the InfantRisk Center if this has not completely answered your question.*(806)352-2519

-James Abbey, MD

The following reference may be useful to your physician if he or she needs more information:

Kok TH, Taitz LS, Bennett MJ, Holt DW. Drowsiness due to clemastine transmitted in breast milk. Lancet. 1982 Apr 17;1(8277):914-5. PubMed ID: 6122135.