To think the occasional glass of wine while breast feeding is ok?

[beansbananas]

Just interested to hear if people generally abstain completely from drinking alcohol when breast feeding, or if you do have the odd glass of wine. I'd like to have a drink in the sunshine today, but obviously my baby is my number one priority. I'm not able to pump yet as my supply is still only just coming in, and my baby feeds pretty much constantly as a consequence. Therefore should I resist having an alcoholic drink, or would it be ok to have a treat? How much of the alcohol passes to the baby through the milk?

I'm breastfeeding still and have a glass of wine or a beer at the weekend. I am cosleeping but I've never been drunk while doing it, plus on a weekend the baby is usually downstairs with my OH for a few hours while I sleep.

I was very low in iron, hovering at blood transfusion level, and sometimes drank a tiny can of stout in the evenings with the approval of my doctor. We were not co sleeping.

Jupiter your HV was wrong - fruit juice of any sort drunk whilst breastfeeding does not make a baby vomit.

Happy to be corrected, crack on OP enjoy your wine

I read that the alcohol that passes into your milk is at the same level as that which goes into your bloodstream. The numbers quoted were around 0.18% when noticeably drunk, and still only 0.55% (less than some non-alcoholic beer) at the point that you are drunk enough to die from alcohol poisoning. The percentage of alcohol in your milk is going to be really tiny if you've only had one or two drinks, especially if you are drinking them slowly.

A lactation consultant once told me that as long as you aren't too drunk to a) locate your baby and b) attach it to your boob, you're fine to feed. I never tested that theory but quite happily drank my normal (not huge) amounts. DS appears to have suffered no ill-effects. The only exception is obviously if you intend to or are likely to end up co-sleeping. Once we started bed-sharing I never risked a drink after about mid-afternoon.

See this is what I don't understand. A few glasses of wine and the baby gets no alcohol yet when I was having 2 cups not very milky tea per day and a bit of cheese here and there, my baby was reacting (she was eventually diagnosed with CMPA).

I don't understand how alcohol isn't passed into the milk but cows milk is? I guess its to do with the allergy itself?

And yep I had occasional drinks here and there (not until baby was a few months but she was a crap sleeper so I choose sleep over wine!)

A glass is ok. Whatever your blood concentration is, is the concentration of your bm. Alcohol moves freely in and out of the breastmilk so as it wears off in your body, it does in your milk as well. You coud breastfeed, have a wine and then by the time baby was ready to feed again it would be minimal; unless your baby was cluster feeding... I get the impression he is still quite little?

Not everything is filtered by the body in the same way - some drugs and proteins (like milk protein) do pass into the milk, others don't.

Crunchymum Alcohol is passed into the breast milk. Easily too, as it is fat soluable. But as easily as it is passed in, it's passed out... unless you have over indulged and have a high blood alcohol content

Grab happiness where you can op!!! Have that glass of wine in the sun and don't feel guilty!! I'm stuck indoors with chicken pox child so have a glass for me too 🍷🌞

Yes, a couple of glasses is fine. The exact analogy my hv used was "like pouring a shot of tequila into a swimming pool of water".

Alcohol is processed differently to proteins etc that's why other food and drink can transfer and affect milk.

As pps have said check out KellyMom and a study by Dr Jack Newman.

Even better I was told to have a glass of wine whilst feeding, that certainly got a few looks in the pub garden a few years ago

Also, just to echo if you do have a drink please don't co-sleep until the alcohol is out of your system. Enjoy!

I breast feed ds (his weans off now though) and dd is still breast feeding and I have always had more than the occasional glass.

I have 2 dc 11 months apart a couple of glasses on a Friday & Saturday are a little enjoyment for me. It's never caused any problems with my 2 dc

I think the NHS advice is 1-2 units, 1-2 times a week when feeding www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/Pages/breastfeeding-alcohol.aspx

I had the odd glass or 2 of wine or the odd bottle of beer whilst breastfeeding, Both of my dds are fine enjoy a glass OP!

I don't abstain. It's fine. Enjoy your

My second born was a shit sleeper.....drove me to drink!

I've been known to have a glass of wine in one hand and the baby nursing in the other

Midwives used to recommend Guinness when I had my children in the 1990s.

I drank whilst breastfeeding and thought nothing of it. I wouldn't get drunk whilst in charge of a baby and didn't cosleep after drinking, so I don't see what the issue is tbh. You can look up info on alcohol in breastmilk on Kellymom if I remember rightly.

At onetime milk stout was recommended for breastfeeding mothers.

As said by many above, alcohol content of your milk is the same as your blood alcohol. To get your blood alcohol to a level where your milk would be "alcoholic" I.e contain more alcohol than orange juice you would need to drink so much that you were dead from alcohol posioning, so moderate consumption definitely allowed. Much bigger risk is co-sleeping drunk so ensure that you can put baby to sleep in cot (or have sober daddy on hand) before overindulging.

This is different of course to the position when pregnant where the blood alcohol content of the baby is the same as that of the mother so it is possible to harm baby by excessive alcohol consumption.

If you really want to minimise effect on baby feed baby while having drink as it takes around an he for the alcohol to make it into the milk, so your milk will be in the clear. You do get some very funny looks in pubs tho with baby on boob and beer in hand!!!!!

Hr not he (must of hit the wine early here)

Have a glass or two of wine, everything will be fine. There was a time babies were given gripe water with alcohol in, so you have nothing to worry about. I couldn't drink coffee when I was breast feeding as it would upset my DD, that was hard going, but that occasional glass of wine in the evening did her no harm whatsoever. DD has a masters degree.

I couldn't drink while breastfeeding my son because even half a glass made him.vomit. so did caffeine.

It was a long 18 months.

(I could have a drink with DD)

You should resist unfortunately, I drunk fruit juice thinking it was healthy whilst breastfeeding but it resulted in my daughter projectile vomiting because it affected my milk. (It was the health visitor who pointed out to me where I was going wrong)

This is total bullshit I'm afraid.

OP, the amount you'd have to drink to have any effect on your baby would be enough to put you in a coma, and anyone who tells you difference doesn't know how the human body works.

You should resist unfortunately, I drunk fruit juice thinking it was healthy whilst breastfeeding but it resulted in my daughter projectile vomiting because it affected my milk. (It was the health visitor who pointed out to me where I was going wrong)

This is total bullshit I'm afraid.

I was happy to be proven wrong by previous posters but as you've said I'm bullshitting I've just googled it and it's true, orange juice and other citrus drinks can cause some babies to react especially in the first few months, so no it doesn't relate to wine but i obviously misunderstood why the juice was affecting my milk, and no it's not bullshit, I would put a link but I'm not sure how to do it on my phone