Question
My baby is on nevirapine and I’m breastfeeding, is my baby positive?
19 August 2016. Related: All topics, Pregnancy.
Answer
Firstly, congratulations on having your baby.
It is normal for your baby to be given a short course (4 weeks) of HIV treatment (such as nevirapine) when born. This doesn’t mean your baby is HIV positive. This will be checked later through testing. A different type of testing is also used on babies as the normal antibody test used in adults will show the baby as positive.
Our guide on pregnancy has lots more information
https://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy
In the UK, the BHIVA (British HIV Association) guidelines recommend bottle feeding.
This is because in countries where mothers can have access to to formula milk AND clean water ANDÂ bottle sterilising equipment, the risk of transmitting HIV to the baby through bottle feeding is zero. There are different recommendations for other countries though and many women breastfeed. I am not sure about the recommendations in Zambia.
This means that you are doing the best that you can to protect your baby.
However, being positive and looking after a new born baby can be hard and many people need help. Do you have much support around you to help or are you touch with good care from your doctor?
Hi Amanda, congratulations on having a baby. How long have you been mixed feeding?
Are you on treatment and/or do you know your own viral load?
It is great that baby has had an HIV negative test. If you are on treatment, even with mixed feeding the risk will remain small. Do you need to continue mixed feeding or will you be able to switch to one feed type until baby is 6 months?
When you stop breastfeeding you can confirm baby’s HIV status 6 weeks after the last time they fed. After this point there will be no further exposure to HIV and they will have a confirmed status.
HIV transmission is rare from mum to baby, even when mixed feeding. Being on treatment can reduce the risk of transmission to less than 1%. This means more than 99 women out of 100 will not pass on HIV. You do not need to worry.
Amanda
Hi my baby girl is 3 months old use Novatrim
And i’m hiv positive and my baby is negative
So I have a big mistake I give my baby breast feed and mixedfeed what happened with my baby girl plz help
Hi Xander, congratulations on having a baby. As you are on ARVs risk to baby is already very low. Even without nevirapine this risk remains minimal.
You can restart treatment. After a week without treatment it is unknown how effective it will be, however there is no harm in giving baby nevirapine and will only help to reduce risk further (which is already small). You do not need to be worried. Being on treatment yourself is the best way to prevent transmission.
Hi. My baby took Nevirapine the 1st day and missed it for the next 6 days, nurse said to give it to her once and only finding out now that that’s not true. What are the chances of her being infected?I take my ARVs everyday
She is exactly a week old today, is it too late to give it to her?
Hi Zodwa, it is a good thing that baby has been stopped on treatment. In most cases treatment is stopped from 6 weeks. There is no further benefit to continue.
More information about treatment for baby can be found here: https://i-base.info/qa/factsheets/infant-meds-when-the-mother-is-living-with-hiv