Q&A: Can I Take Melatonin While Breastfeeding?

Milkology Q&A

Question:

Is it safe for me to take a small dose of melatonin at night while breastfeeding? This would be after my baby goes to sleep and they sleep through the night.

Can I Take Melatonin While Breastfeeding?

Answer:

Unfortunately, as a lactation consultant, I can’t give you advice about what medications to take. I recommend you contact your baby’s pediatrician for advice. But I can tell you that, according to the CDC, most medications are safe during breastfeeding, and few are completely contraindicated.

According to LactMed, which is a database from the National Library of Medicine, melatonin use by breastfeeding parents has not been studied, but it’s “unlikely that short-term use of usual doses of melatonin in the evening by a nursing mother would adversely affect her breastfed infant.”

LactMed does note that some experts do not recommend melatonin because of the lack of data and because it has a long half-life in premature babies. In general, the younger and more medically vulnerable a baby is, the more careful you need to be with medications or supplements while breastfeeding.

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