Developed bell's Palsy after giving birth last Monday - after a week of being messed about my Dr finally said the best treatment is a mild dose of steroids and these other tablets - Aciclovir and Prednisolone....

The Dr has said it should be fine with breastfeeding as its a low dose - basically the other choice was to bottle feed for a week but my milk hasnt even come in yet and I really did not want to do this - I cried my heart out as I want to do the right thing by my baby but cant go on with my face being paralised on one side...cant close me eye or eat properly...

The course is for five days and is 8 tablets in the morning! and then 5 of the other during the day!

anyone else had this and taken the tablets? i just want to do the right thing....

Okey, did some Googling for you...........

Acyclovir is apparently ok in usual dosage when breastfeeding. Prednisone can get into ur milk in small doses so you do need to b aware of this and decide if u want to take the risk. It can cause side efects (not sure what as it didn't go into it) to you and baby.

Thing is hun, I know you so want to do the best for ur bubba but she needs a well mummy too........dunno if you have anyone you can talk this thru with but it mite help if you can. And don't forget, you bf since birth so she's had some good stuff and antibodies from you already.

Big hugs to you, BP's not fun I know.....

Thank you Mummyx5 you are so kind to do this for me...I think I will start the meds as the GP said that it wont affect baby and its only for 5 days..I will still breastfeed him though and hope the GP is right...

thanks again xx

Hi

I had bells palsy after an accident and the left side of my face was paralysed I couldn't smile and it honestly looked as though I had a stroke. For me, it took quite a few weeks to get back to normal as its was quite severe to start with, like you my eye wouldn't close properly and quite often went to sleep with one eye open (my poor husband) but gradually it came back. To be honest the left side is still not quite right when i'm tired but only I know this no one else would know any different.

It will get better I promise you, it just may take some time.

congratulations on your new baby. :\)

LillyKitt,
did you take medication?

hey, i developed bells palsey in the last trimester of my pregnancy and have recovered well. took several weeks to be totally back to normal. i went a week not realising what it was, and because i was on holiday i didnt make much of a fuss incase it ruined our week away. i was given meds-low steroids which were safe to use.

hope you feel better soon!

Thanks Keelykat - its been a difficult last week but I have started the low dose meds - its good to read that someone else took them too..I have been beating myself no end about it and it has made it really hard but think baby blues has hit me too. Thanks for your message.

No problem! don't be hard on yourself, i found out its quite comon in the last trimester and after birth-but i had never heard of it before. My gp sent me straight to the hospital though-as he wanted to double check what meds to give me so not to harm baby. I was in there for hours-was so glad to get home afterwards! luckily, they looked after me well, even fed me as my iron levels were low and i felt light headed! Cant complain about the nurses that night. xx

Hi

Sorry to take so long to get back, to be honest I dont think I did take tablets. I had a perforated ear drum at the same time so was on anti-biotics for that. I remember that it came back very gradually, literally the tiniest movement on my mouth on the one side was how i noticed it was coming back. It was horrific and I felt extremely selt conscious as I was still in college at the time. You will be fine, it can take time because its the nerves which take a while to heal (so they told me), but I promise you it will get better. :\)

I'm sorry to hear you've had Bells' palsy! I think you made the right decision to take the meds though, I'm sure your doc wouldn't advise you to do anything that would harm your baby. My hubby has had several attacks of Bell's since he was about 12, but only once in the time I've known him (which is 10 years). I think he had steroids for it, but he also was advised to exercise his face as much a possible, practising smiling and pursing his lips as if he was going to whistle. This is to stimulate the nerve regrowth I think. He found these quite hard and frustrating, but his face has improved a lot and no-one would know he'd had Bell's now. It did take him a few months to get back to normal, and he still notices it when his face gets cold or if he's very tired, but really it's not a problem any more and he looks totally normal. For him I think the main problem was the psychological aspect - he did feel really miserable when his face wouldn't move.

Wishing you a quick recovery!
Love Astraad xx

[Modified by: Astraad on December 02, 2008 03:12 PM]