Is 131I Safe in Breastfeeding

I am a breastfeeding mother and i want to know if it is safe to use 131I? Is 131I safe for nursing mother and child? Does 131I extracts into breast milk? Does 131I has any long term or short term side effects on infants? Can 131I influence milk supply or can 131I decrease milk supply in lactating mothers?

• DrLact safety Score for 131I is 5 out of 8 which is considered Unsafe as per our analyses.
• A safety Score of 5 indicates that usage of 131I may cause serious side effects in breastfed baby.
• Our study of different scientific research indicates that 131I may cause moderate to high side effects or may affect milk supply in lactating mother.
• Our suggestion is to use safer alternate options rather than using 131I .
• It is recommended to evaluate the advantage of not breastfeeding while using 131I Vs not using 131I And continue breastfeeding.
• While using 131I Its must to monitor child for possible reactions. It is also important to understand that side effects vary largely based on age of breastfed child and time of medication in addition to dosage.
• Score calculated using the DrLact safety Version 1.2 model, this score ranges from 0 to 8 and measures overall safety of drug in lactation. Scores are primarily calculated using publicly available case studies, research papers, other scientific journals and publically available data.

It has physical half-life of 192 hours (8 days). However, the effective half-life is a function of the biological half-life of every I-131 compound. I-131Na (sodium compound) is used as treatment or for thyroid testing. It has an effective half-life of 11 hours. It accumulates in thyroid tissue and breast milk. If the dose is higher than 1 mCi breastfeeding should be interrupted. Even more, it would be desirable delaying the procedure for 40 days after nursing has stopped since the mammal gland may result affected. If the dose used was lower than 1 mCi (37 MBq) breastfeeding may be resumed after 41 days of interruption. I-131 OIH (sodium ortho-iodide hyppurate) is used for testing. It has an effective half-life of 6 hours. By a nursing interruption of 30 hours there is no risk of irradiation in the infant. For lactating mothers it is recommended I-123 as a compound for thyroid testing. It would be better the use of a Tecnetium containing compound which is a substance with shorter half-life. Whenever the continuation of breastfeeding is desired, it is advisable to start pumping and milk may be used to feed the infant while nursing is being interrupted whether alone or together with formula. Once the test is over, mother’s milk may be pumped and storage in a separated freezer until it achieves 10 physical half-lives at which point the radiation has disappeared and milk become safe. Radiation level in breast milk can be tested. The shortest half-life radio-nuclide must be chosen whenever possible.