Is Sodium Fluoride F 18 safe while breastfeeding?
Here is what NIH LactMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's authority on medicines and breastfeeding, reports about Sodium Fluoride F 18. This is a summary of that source — not our own verdict.
Effects on the breastfed infant
Relevant published information was not found as of the revision date.
Effects on milk supply
Relevant published information was not found as of the revision date.
Levels in milk
F18 is a positron emitter with a principal decay energy of 0.6335 MeV, annihilation photons of 0.511 MeV, and a physical half-life of 1.8 hours and 0.07% of an administered dose appears in breastmilk.[ 4 ] Maternal Levels. A study in one mother who received an oral dose of 25 mg of nonradioactive sodium fluoride found that milk fluoride concentrations closely paralleled maternal serum fluoride concentration at 21 to 32% of maternal serum levels over an 8-hour period. The authors estimated that this represents only 0.2% of the dose given to the mother.[ 5 ] Infant Levels. Relevant published information was not found as of the revision date.
“No published information” means the studies do not exist yet — not that Sodium Fluoride F 18 is known to be harmful, and not that it is known to be safe. Your prescriber or pharmacist can weigh your baby's age and whether a better-studied alternative would do the same job. Worth asking before stopping a medicine you need.
Source: NIH LactMed (National Library of Medicine).
Educational summary of an authoritative source — not medical advice. Never start, stop, or change a medicine while breastfeeding without confirming with your doctor.