Is Sodium Stibogluconate safe while breastfeeding?
Here is what NIH LactMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's authority on medicines and breastfeeding, reports about Sodium Stibogluconate. 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
Maternal Levels. A nursing mother was given 1 dose of sodium stibogluconate 1 gram intravenously, followed by intravenous doses of 1.4 grams (about 20 mg/kg of antimony) daily for 14 days. Numerous milk samples were obtained before and for 25 hours after the fifth and fourteenth doses of the drug. The average of the 2 trough values of antimony in milk was 0.7 mg/L; the average of the 2 peak concentrations was 3.5 mg/L at 4 hours after the dose.[ 1 ] (For comparison, average background antimony breastmilk concentrations range from 0.14 to 0.4 mcg/L).[ 2 , 3 ] After the sodium stibogluconate doses, milk antimony levels declined with a half-life of about 6 hours to a value of 0.7 mg/L at 23 hours after the dose.[ 1 ] Using the average of the peak and trough values, a fully breastfed infant would receive about 0.3 mg/kg daily of antimony or about 1.6% of the maternal weight-adjusted dosage. 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 Stibogluconate 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.