Glaucoma and pregnancy/breastfeeding

[wanderingstar]

I've posted this in a few places just to cover my bases, but does anyone have experience with having glaucoma and being pregnant/breastfeeding?

My eye doc wants to start drops right away, but it's a category C and will also be excreted in breast milk. I am 26 weeks pregnant and plan on breastfeeding, but who knows how that will work out. I only lasted 3 weeks with my first.

I made a deal with the doc that I wanted to at least try to breastfeed for 3 months. If it doesn't work out, I will start drops right away. If breastfeeding is going well, I will stop at 3 months and start the drops. She was okay with that, but not any longer.

Any experience with this? The drops she would give me are called Timolol.

Thanks!!

[vvvvvfee]

InfantRisk is the premier drugs/breastfeeding research lab. they posted the following in response to someone asking about BFing while taking the drops: "Timilol is secreted into milk in low levels. No untoward effects have been reported on infants. These levels are probably too small to be clinically relevant. Relative infant dose is only 1.1%. Monitor the baby for drowsiness, lethargy, pallor, poor feeding and weight gain."

you can also call infantrisk's free hotline and give them your specific dosage and ask for more details: [phone], Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm CT

here is the entry on LactMed: toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search2/f?./temp/~kFqrQl:1
"Ophthalmic use of timolol by the mother should pose little risk to the breastfed infant. To substantially diminish the amount of drug that reaches the breastmilk after using eye drops, place pressure over the tear duct by the corner of the eye for 1 minute or more, then remove the excess solution with an absorbent tissue."
it looks like there hasn't been a lot of research on effects on BFing babies, but again, infantrisk would have the latest research info.

you could also ask your doctor about alternative medications, and call and ask infantrisk about the alternatives as well. additionally, you could ask your pediatrician his/her opinion.

personally, i would continue the drops and BF. the amount that would reach your milk is likely to be very small.

[wanderingstar]

May 18, 2017 12:20:26 GMT -5 vvvvvfee said:

InfantRisk is the premier drugs/breastfeeding research lab. they posted the following in response to someone asking about BFing while taking the drops: "Timilol is secreted into milk in low levels. No untoward effects have been reported on infants. These levels are probably too small to be clinically relevant. Relative infant dose is only 1.1%. Monitor the baby for drowsiness, lethargy, pallor, poor feeding and weight gain."

you can also call infantrisk's free hotline and give them your specific dosage and ask for more details: [phone], Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm CT

here is the entry on LactMed: toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search2/f?./temp/~kFqrQl:1
"Ophthalmic use of timolol by the mother should pose little risk to the breastfed infant. To substantially diminish the amount of drug that reaches the breastmilk after using eye drops, place pressure over the tear duct by the corner of the eye for 1 minute or more, then remove the excess solution with an absorbent tissue."
it looks like there hasn't been a lot of research on effects on BFing babies, but again, infantrisk would have the latest research info.

you could also ask your doctor about alternative medications, and call and ask infantrisk about the alternatives as well. additionally, you could ask your pediatrician his/her opinion.

personally, i would continue the drops and BF. the amount that would reach your milk is likely to be very small.

Thank you so much for this!

[lilyelayne]

wanderingstar calling infantrisk is a good option to see if they recommend one drug over another, or if there are any glaucoma drops that aren't BF compatible. Not everyone's eye pressure responds to every glaucoma drug so while your doc may try timolol first, you may find yourself assessing other drugs in the future.

But glaucoma damage is irreparable so I get why your doc may not want you to hold off treatment.

There are laser treatments for glaucoma too, if you want to inquire about those when talking to infantrisk and your ophthalmologist. I've been out of the ophthalmology biz for two years, but SLT (selective laser trabeculoplasty) was the go to laser treatment then.

[wanderingstar]

May 18, 2017 17:38:54 GMT -5 lilyelayne said:

wanderingstar calling infantrisk is a good option to see if they recommend one drug over another, or if there are any glaucoma drops that aren't BF compatible. Not everyone's eye pressure responds to every glaucoma drug so while your doc may try timolol first, you may find yourself assessing other drugs in the future.

But glaucoma damage is irreparable so I get why your doc may not want you to hold off treatment.

There are laser treatments for glaucoma too, if you want to inquire about those when talking to infantrisk and your ophthalmologist. I've been out of the ophthalmology biz for two years, but SLT (selective laser trabeculoplasty) was the go to laser treatment then.

Thank you for the info! My doc ended up calling me with another brand of drops that are usually taken as an add on when the other drops aren't as effective. So we are going to try those first and see how it goes, those are in Cat. B, so better!

Thanks everyone for responding, I appreciate it!