Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding by mothers with epilepsy is generally recommended. 

However, although in very small amounts, medications are present in breast milk.  You should keep in mind that your baby has been exposed to your medications throughout your pregnancy and the amounts of medications present in breast milk are low.  And, the benefits of breastfeeding are believed to outweigh the risks of side-effects from continuing exposure to small amount of antiseizure medications in breast milk. Baby’s growth and development should be carefully monitored for possible side effects. This is especially true when taking:

• Ethosuximide (Zarontin)
• Phenobarbital
• mysoline (primidone)
• benzodiazepines
Medications that appear in the mother milk include: I am not sure how to answer this;

All studied antiseizure medications were present in breast milk in varying amount depending on specific medication. However amount of medication in baby’s blood-stream depends not only on amount of medication in breast milk, but also on amount of milk that baby drinks, and how quickly can baby eliminate drug.