Drinking whilst breastfeeding

[Sid2024]

I was at a wedding today and had pumped a significant amount so that I could have a few drinks at the wedding. What I didn't anticipate was the baby drinking more than expected and me having to breast feed sooner than I would have liked.

I had 4 small glasses of prosecco (they were smaller than 125ml each) and 2 medium glasses of wine over the course of 6 hours. Then, 2-3 hours after my last drink I had to feed my baby. I didn't feel drunk at all but I am still worried about my alcohol levels since I had to feed him. Will the alcohol have passed through to him and will this affect him?

No

yes but not to any great extent. He won't get drunk. It might interrupt his sleep patterns

Won’t make a blind bit of difference.

It’s absolutely fine. I never pumped or didn’t feed mine when drinking. I don’t drink now and I did a lot of dumb things while drinking, but having a few glasses of wine while breastfeeding is completely fine. Our bodies are much more clever than that and there will only be the most insignificant amount of alcohol in your milk. Hope you had a lovely time.

You don’t need to pump and dump. The level that you would need to drink to affect baby would be falling over drunk level. Your baby could have drunk your milk.

(I’ve been to a wedding this weekend with DC3 who is 10 weeks old and I had 5 glasses of wine over the course of the day), fed baby as normal no pumping and dumping

its old fashioned advice with out of date data that makes people think they have to do that

You would have to have an astronomical amount of alcohol in your blood for it to be in large enough amounts in your breast milk to affect your baby

This
indeed so much that you you would be physically incapable of doing anything at all let alone holding and feeding a baby.

Yeah it's fine. You literally have to have alcohol poisoning for it to affect the baby.

Thanks Everyone, seems like most people are agreeing - does anyone have any sources that show alcohol levels are negligible after drinking and therefore don't pass through as much as previously thought? Just for my own peace of mind

https://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/factsheet/alcohol/
Apparently you need to be around 4x the drink driving limit (in England) before it would affect your baby.
Pump and dump doesn't change anything because the alcohol level in breastmilk is the same as your blood. You wouldn't lower you BAC through blood loss, same principle applies to pumping.