Home Forums Induced Lactation aka Adoptive Breastfeeding Medical Interventions to Induce Lactation/Increase Milk Supply Success story and HIV question

Hello,

First, just to give those of you who are in the process of relactating a success story....I am still nursing my son at 20 months who we brought home at 4.5 months from Ethiopia. We used the lactaid and formula until he was about 12 months and now he nurses freely without it through the night and for naps and comfort. It has been such a sweet experience. Thanks for all the encouragment and wisdom I received here.

Secondly, we may be bringing home an HIV+ child. I know I need to talk to our doc, but do the experts here know if it would be inadvisable to breastfeed an HIV+ child? I know it is not transmitted through saliva, but am wondering if there is in fact a slight chance of transmission if say he were to bite me and have an open sore in his mouth. What about if his viral load is undectable? Does anyone know if there have been any cases of this?

I would love to give our child with an already compromised immune system the benefits of breastfeeding, but not if it is at risk to me.

Thanks for any insight,
ergent7
5 breastfed kids, one adopted in 07

Dear Ergent7,

Thank you for your thoughtful and encouraging message and congratulations on your first adoptive breastfeeding experience. I apologize for my delayed response.

To answer your question, although there is a lot of literature concerning HIV positive mothers breastfeeding, there is not much on the risk to an adoptive mom from an HIV positive infant. The short answer is that if you have an open sore you do run the risk of infection. For experienced breastfeeding moms, the likelihood of this is low but what if the infant has a tongue-tie? Then the risk of nipple damage and possible infection increases. Some experts recommend HIV medications for babies born of HIV positive moms whether or not they are yet positive. They call this prophylaxis treatment. The best person to speak to about this is your own doctor or another health care provider who is well versed on the risks of HIV infection and breastfeeding.

Best, Lenore