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Will decongestants affect my milk supply while nursing?

923 views · Published 16 November 2018 · 2:05 · Indexed 2 October 2026

Channel: IntermountainParents · 2018 · Education

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You wanted to know if it's okay to take decongestants while nursing. And a lot of nursing mothers do get colds, and so, of course, you want to know what over-the-counter medicine you can take for symptom relief. But decongestants can actually affect your milk supply, and so they should be used with caution and only after talking with your pediatrician about their safety and use while nursing. If your pediatrician says that they're okay to take, just make sure that you're taking extra measures to boost your milk supply, so drink a lot of water while you're nursing. Just have a cup by you and drink water while your baby is nursing. This is also important because you're sick too. It's important to stay well-hydrated, and then make sure that you're eating regularly, and try to sneak in extra nursing or pumping sessions throughout the day, and this will send your body the message that it needs to boost supply. So, hopefully, as you're sending that message, if the decongestants are working on drying up your milk a little bit, hopefully you'll be able to maintain your supply while you're sick if you do have to take these medications.

Milk supply is essentially a supply-and-demand type of function, so the more frequently you empty your breasts, the more they get the message to fill them back up. So this is why if your baby is nursing right now every 3-4 hours, if you nurse your baby every 2-3 or sneak in extra pumping sessions, you can even do what's called power pumping where you pump for 30 minutes out of an hour, but not consecutively. You actually pump for 10, rest for 10, pump for 10, rest for 10, pump for 10, rest for the last 10, and just do this once a day for a few days and this should also help to boost milk supply. Maybe you took decongestants and didn't know that they would affect it, and it has, and so you're looking for ways to bring it back up, and these things should help. If you have more questions in the future for me, feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IntermountainMoms, and recommend us to your friends and family too.

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