Can I take medicine if I catch a cold during the confinement period?

Postpartum mothers suffer from deficiency of qi and blood, decreased resistance, and excessive sweating, which causes their pores to be open all the time. Once they are exposed to drastic temperature changes, they are prone to catching a cold. Improper use of medication by mothers during the confinement period will not only affect the health of the baby, but some medicines will also affect the mother's physical recovery. Therefore, medications should be used with caution during the confinement period. So can I still breastfeed if I have a cold during the confinement period?

1. How to use medicine correctly during confinement

During the confinement period, if the mother feels slight discomfort, such as postpartum pain, headache, insomnia, depression, back pain, anemia and other problems, she can relieve the symptoms through diet therapy or other methods. If the symptoms can be cured without medication, she does not need to take medication.

Some common diseases during the confinement period are difficult to heal on their own, such as severe colds, fever, mastitis, uterine infection, etc. If the mother suffers from these diseases, she must see a doctor and take medicine in time to avoid delaying treatment. In addition, when taking medication, be sure to follow your doctor's orders. Doctors will generally tell the mother several methods based on her actual situation: 1. Stagger the time for the baby to breastfeed and the time for the mother to take medicine. 2. Stop breastfeeding and resume breastfeeding after the treatment is completed. 3. Or stop breastfeeding and switch to artificial feeding.

2. Diet therapy can cure minor ailments during the confinement period

Food not only provides the nutrition and energy that mothers need on a daily basis, but many foods also have medicinal and edible properties and can eliminate the mother's physical discomfort. For example, a cold can be treated with brown sugar and ginger water, a cough can be relieved with white radish water, and insufficient milk can be treated with crucian carp and pig's trotters to stimulate lactation. These are all very good dietary therapy methods, and are also Chinese medicine remedies that have been passed down among the people for a long time.

3. A good mood can also fight minor illnesses

Keeping a good mood during the confinement period can also help fight minor illnesses. The mood of the expectant mother affects milk secretion and physical recovery, so maintaining a good mood will reduce the probability of getting sick a lot.

4. Drugs prohibited during lactation

The following drugs should be avoided or prohibited for breastfeeding women:

(1) Traditional Chinese medicines include roasted malt, Sichuan pepper, and Glauber's salt; Western medicines include levodopa, ergonovine, estrogen, vitamin B6, atropine, and diuretics. These medicines can cause the mother to stop breastfeeding, so mothers should not take them easily during breastfeeding.

(2) Penicillin antibiotics, including penicillin, neopenicillin II, neopenicillin III, ampicillin, etc. This type of drug rarely enters breast milk, but in extremely rare cases it can cause allergic reactions in infants, so attention should be paid.

(3) Sulfonamide drugs, such as sulfamethoxazole, sulfadiazine, sulfamethoxazole, sulfaguanidine, probenecid, trimethoprim, bacteriostatic sulfamethoxazole, dipyridine tablets, co-trimoxazole, etc. Sulfonamide drugs are weakly acidic and do not easily enter breast milk, so they have no obvious adverse effects on infants.

However, given that the drug metabolism enzyme system of infants is not fully developed and the liver's detoxification function is poor, even a small amount of drugs absorbed into the infant's body can produce harmful effects, leading to an increase in free bilirubin in the plasma; it can also cause hemolytic anemia in some infants and young children who lack glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Therefore, it is not advisable to use such drugs for a long time or in large quantities during breastfeeding, especially long-acting sulfonamide preparations, which should be restricted.

(4) Isoniazid (Remifon) has no confirmed adverse effects on infants, but since anti-tuberculosis drugs need to be used for a long time, in order to avoid adverse effects on infants, it is best to switch to other drugs or stop breastfeeding.

(5) Metronidazole is a broad-spectrum antibiotic commonly used to treat Trichomonas vaginitis and anaerobic bacterial infections. Although the harm to breastfeeding infants after oral administration has not been finally confirmed, it is still recommended not to use it.

(6) Chloramphenicol. Infants, especially newborns, do not have a sound liver detoxification function. If chloramphenicol is inhaled through breast milk, it is easy for the infant to be poisoned, inhibit bone marrow function, cause leukopenia, and even cause the fatal gray baby syndrome. Therefore, it should be prohibited to use chloramphenicol.

If you accidentally catch a cold, don't be too nervous. Although a breastfeeding mother may transmit the virus to the baby after catching a cold, the antibodies are also passed to the baby through breast milk, which can resist infection. Therefore, do not stop breastfeeding rashly. You should decide based on the severity of the cold. As long as the mother consults the doctor carefully before taking the medicine, the doctor will tell her the correct way to use the medicine, thus solving her worries.