Can I undergo Lasik surgery while I am still breastfeeding the baby?

We typically ask women to wait around 6 weeks after the conclusion of breastfeeding before having Lasik. This is because some women have a temporary change in the glasses prescription during breastfeeding. However, this change is rare and is typically very small when it does occur, so there are instances that we will make an exception. Some women wish to breastfeed many years and so it is really impractical to wait until they are finished. In these cases, we ask the mother to pump some milk before and to throw away the milk for a day after the treatment, because some of the medication might get into the milk. Again, we are being extremely cautious here, because the very small amounts of the medications which might get into the milk are not likely to harm the child, but it is best to be as cautious as possible. 

It might seem funny when your eye doctor asks if you're pregnant, planning on becoming or breast feeding during your LASIK evaluation.  The reason is that the hormonal changes during these events destabilize your cornea and prescription making LASIK surgery less accurate.   It is better to wait at least 3 months after giving birth or stopping breast feeding (whichever is later) to allow your cornea to stabilize before having LASIK.  I actually usually ask my patients to wait 6 months.

We usually don’t offer LASIK while pregnant, planning to be pregnant,or until three months after breast-feeding is done.  The prescription that we are treating can change during those times so we wait till three months after breast-feeding is done. That’s when the prescription usually stabilizes to a baseline level.