Lialda and breast feeding

Hi folks,

I'm heading into my fourth month of pregnancy and starting to plan for everything baby :)  (Really thankful to have made it this far!)

Flare-wise I had a mini flare at the beginning of my pregnancy, then had a "normal" system for the first time in years, and am now back to a mini flare after letting three nights lapse in between enemas.  Shifting to nightly enemas on top of my Lialda for a while.

In any case, I've read that breastfeeding while taking oral mesalamine can cause issues for the baby.  I'm planning to ask my doc about this when I finally meet her (since most appts are with a nurse or ultrasound tech), but was curious if anyone out there has advice.

I always appreciate feedback from you guys, the pros. 

I'm pretty sure the article about IBD and pregnancy that's in the UC resources thread addresses meds and breastfeeding. I also think that it may cause diarrhea, but like kazbern said, infant poop is pretty much diarrhea anyway!

I plan to nurse this baby , but have no plans of going off my current meds to do so. My UC started shortly after my son was born, and don't want to do anything that would "encourage" a flare. I've been through the hell that is flaring with a newborn, and I don't want to do it again!

Infantrisk is a great site to check out or you could call a La Leche League leader in your area. They often have copies of Dr. Hale's book on meds and mother's milk.

As far as a complete anecdotal story, I nursed both my boys while on asacol. My first was about 9 months when I started asacol and there was no change in his stool. Second boy I nursed for years and he has healthy BMs.

Infant poop is definitely runny, but with actual diarrhea you would probably get a bad odor or an unusual color or more watery than normal. It's a tough one, since normal, healthy, non medicated infant poop can be a broad range of "normal".

So I went and checked the article I mentioned, and here's what it says:

"Mesalamine, or 5 aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA), has been shown to cross into breastmilk in small quantities. The
American Academy of Pediatrics advises caution in using these medications during lactation due to a case of bloody
diarrhea in a breastfed infant of a mother on this medication. However, studies show that 5-ASA levels were
either found to be undetectable or at very low levels (less than 10% of the therapeutic dose) in breastmilk (0.0006–0.006 mg/kg)."

To me, that sounds pretty darn safe!