The following should temporarily suspend breastfeeding — and should not feed their infants expressed milk — until cleared by a healthcare provider:
- Lactating parents with untreated brucellosis
- Lactating parents with an active herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection with sores on the breast
- Lactating parents undergoing diagnostic imaging with radiopharmaceuticals
- Lactating parents taking medications that could be harmful to the breastfeeding infant (see above).[1]
To maintain milk supply, parents who intend to continue breastfeeding once they are cleared by a healthcare provider should continue lactation but should not feed the expressed milk to the baby (i.e., “pump and dump”).