Head lice treatment while breastfeeding?

[Anonymous]

My DD infected me with head lice and I'm still nursing my youngest 4 times a day. I tried Nix (permethrin) as instructed (2 applications) and it didn't work on me. Doc prescribed malathion but I forgot to tell him I"m BFing. Anyone have experience with Malathion or other medicine while breastfeeding? Please help. I"m having a bit of a nervous breakdown!

[Anonymous]

I used Ovide (malathion) but was not breastfeeding. You can probably look up the manufacturer's drug information for yourself (and should under the circumstances no matter what anyone tells you).

My guess is that taking it while breastfeeding is not a good idea, and I know it isn't (wasn't) approved for use on children. One question is whether there is a long-lasting residual effect on your hair, scalp, maybe hands, and anything else it touches. If so, just holding the baby may expose him/her. The other is how much your skin absorbs and whether or not that makes it into the breastmilk. The manufacturer's website should be able to shed some light on this. And of course, you know it's super flammable because of the alcohol base, even when it's on one's head.

All this is coming from a mom who thinks it is sometimes reasonable to use pesticides and wishes everyone treated lice more aggressively so I'd have to worry about catching it less. Maybe you could use some combing help? I had none, which is why I felt I needed to ask for the big pesticide guns. There are now people you can pay to comb through and remove nits in the area, but this wasn't the case 6 years ago when we had our issue.

Good luck.