A husband and wife from Tucson, Arizona, are facing charges after their 4-month-old baby was found to have cocaine in her system.
Som and Krystin Lisaius — who both happen to be former TV news reporters — are now facing three counts each of child-abuse and drug charges, the Arizona Daily Star reports.
On May 14, the couple had both snorted cocaine in her home while barbecuing with friends. Krystin breastfed her daughter 12 hours later, thinking the drug was out of her system. But shortly afterward, the baby girl became limp, lethargic and her eyes rolled back in her head. The worried parents rushed her to an Ora Valley hospital.
Later, blood tests revealed the baby girl did indeed have cocaine in her system, according to a police report. The infant has placed with her maternal grandmother, the Lisaiuses’ attorney Michael Piccarreta told the Arizona Daily Star. Piccarreta also commented the baby “was and is 100 percent healthy, and never was in any danger.”
“Hypothetically, if the child ingested cocaine through breast milk, then you gotta realize that there’s different understanding as to when a recreational drug will be out of your system,”
Piccarreta told the Tucson News. “And if there’s a misjudgment as to how fast it’s out of your system, then it’s an error that has been learned. It won’t be repeated.”
According to La Leche League International (LLLI,) it can take a relatively long time for recreational drugs to completely leave a nursing mother’s system.
“Recreational drugs pass into the milk and can be dangerous to your baby,” according to an informational LLLI pamphlet. “Depending on the drug, it may take quite a long time for it to pass out of the milk and your system. During this time, you may not be alert enough to care for your baby. For these reasons, it’s best not to use recreational drugs while you’re breastfeeding or caring for children.”
Drugs like alcohol, caffeine and nicotine also enter a mother’s milk supply, although at a small fraction of what the nursing mom intakes.
In fact, most breastfeeding moms can safely drink in moderation, according to LLLI. Alcohol passes out of the milk just as it passes out of a person’s blood stream — so there’s no need to pump milk and dump it after alcohol consumption. For example: It takes roughly three hours for a 120-pound woman to eliminate most of the alcohol from her blood and milk for every serving of wine or beer.
For more information on how drugs can affect breastfeeding, visit www.llli.org.