Do you/did you drink when breastfeeding?

[BoarOnTheFloor]

First off I’m not a mum so I don’t keep up with whether you should drink when pregnant/breastfeeding studies etc. And obviously not my child so none of my business etc. But I realised recently a good friend is drinking every night and still feeding. Not to excess, sometimes one drink, sometimes 2/3. LO is 18 months so on food too. Is this normal and fine? She’s had a lot of stress recently. I don’t know whether it’s totally fine and I should butt out or whether I should say that’s maybe not great? All advice welcome.

Yep absolutely fine. No need to pump and dump anymore either. The risk is to do with looking after the child. If you're safe to hold the baby, you're safe to feed. You'd have to drink a hell of a lot for there to be a significant enough amount in your milk

Fine in terms of breastfeeding but not a great strategy for stress management

I rarely drink but have had the odd one while feeding.

Is she okay? Is this how much she’s always had to drink (when not pregnant?)?

Yep totally fine

Yes, it’s fine to drink while feeding

The rule of thumb I was told my my GP friend is ‘if you’re sober enough to hold a baby, you’re sober enough to feed the baby’

I also remember a link in my NCT whatsapp group to a blog by a policewoman who used the evidence-grade alcohol monitor in the station to test samples of her milk after drinking shots
She did a shot, waited 30(?) mins, tested the milk, did another shot, waited, tested etc until she was too drunk to operate the machine
The level of alcohol in her milk was barely measurable

I admire that level of dedication to the cause so had to stand by her findings (for a couple of glasses of wine, no jager bombs)

Yes I did, I breastfed DC1 until he was 4 and DC2 until nearly 3. It's a long time to go without any alcohol!

Not often though as I tend to cosleep when they're little and still waking in the night and I don't think that's safe, but don't like putting them somewhere else.

Drinking every night is not great for babies but if she's only drinking a little then it probably doesn't matter. Especially if she's lucky enough to have a toddler that sleeps through, the alcohol will have totally left her system by the time she feeds probably.

Absolutely fine, I often had a g&t in the bath after long days. Lots of studies on it

No I didn't, but I pretty much gave up drinking once I was ttc and never started again for health/weight reasons. No idea on the impact on the baby, but I wouldn't mention it, just because comments like that are never going to be well received.

Absolutely fine. Nothing for you to judge her about.

Milk is roughly 1:1 with blood alcohol level. The drink drive limit is 0.08% and orange juice is around 0.5% alcohol. If your blood reached 0.5% alcohol you'd die. So it's really unlikely that a few drinks is going to cause milk to be alcoholic enough to do harm. Although I do remember reading that if your milk has a constant low level of alcohol in it, this has been shown to have an adverse effect but then again surely having an alcoholic parent may have an adverse effect by itself.

Sorry that's what I meant by drinking every night not being great. In context of the child being older and nobody batting an eye if they had juice every day at that age (except for the effect on their teeth!) it's probably not big deal at all.

Fine. Although by that age they tend to be a bit “grabby” so it’s best to not have a glass in hand while they are actually feeding (and wine in a plastic beaker is for camping only).

Orange juice can be more alcoholic than BM after a couple of drinks.

OTOH I would be concerned about your friend’s mental health and whether she needs a bit more support.

@BertieBotts snap on orange juice! DS had it at every meal at that age to help with constipation issues.

It's totally fine from a what's in the milk perspective.
I'd say that level of drinking while not great health wise is probably manageable? Is it literally every night without fail?

Thanks so much everyone, appreciate all your answers as I’m not informed at all.

Although by that age they tend to be a bit “grabby” so it’s best to not have a glass in hand while they are actually feeding (and wine in a plastic beaker is for camping only).

I think it’s only ever when LO is asleep so no chance of this.

It's totally fine