To be worried....breastfeeding and alcohol

[Pondlife87]

Hi everyone
I am EBF and yesterday I had my first few drinks (baby girl is 10 weeks old). Between 3.30 and 7 I had 2 gin and tonics and a 50% shot. I pumped twice and didn't breastfeed until 11pm (4 hours after my last drink).
Baby slept for 7 hours (we normally get 6 max), then fed at 6am and then slept another 3.5 hours. So slept more than she normally would.
She has also been posseting/ puking a lot more than normal today.
She has been playing as normal and interacting as normal, but i am just worrying the increased sleepiness and increased puke is because I drank and didn't leave enough time.
I found the recommendations a bit confusing as wasn't sure if timings should be from the start of my first drink or last drink. Am i being silly worrying? Or did i fuck up?

You're fine, she's fine. You can stop worrying.

You'd have to get utterly trollied to make you breast milk have more alcohol.in it than an orange juice.

Seriously nothing to worry about.

And I believe current advice is that expressing is not necessary

Drinking while breastfeeding is nothing like drinking while pregnant. You would need to be at the stage of dropping baby before it would matter

Was it 2 home measured gin? If so that would prob be double measures at least. It does sound like quite a lot to have and breastfeed 4 hours later, you wouldn’t drive a car in that time. She will be fine though, it’s obviously not agreed with her but your milk will be fine now so out system. I’m pretty sure you can buy test strips to test the alcohol level in your milk, maybe worth picking up as guidelines are always confusing

You don't need to pump and dump. Just feed as normal.

You didn't fuck up.

My HVs and lactation consultant told me that in order for enough alcohol to make it into the milk that it would negatively affect the baby, you'd have to be about 7-8 times over the legal drink drive limit.

Or as one of them put it: if you can hold the baby, you can feed the baby

Don’t worry, it’s a coincidence.

Current thinking is that you don’t need to “pump and dump” after alcohol. Very little alcohol carries into the milk, if you’re sober enough to care for the baby then the milk will be fine.

YABU for having a shot
A nice margarita would have been better

Lots of studies showing how tiny the amount of alcohol present in the milk is and there is no need to pump and dump (unless you are getting seriously hammered and then the worry is not the milk but the lack of awareness)

She’ll be absolutely fine.

I drank when DD was 4 months old. She usually slept from 8pm-5am. So I went out at 8pm and had a few drinks. Enough to feel tipsy. Got home at 11pm and she woke up as I entered the house and wanted fed. I fed her. Worried endlessly but she’s fine.

You're doing a great job! Relax! Any effects you observed are just coincidence. You'd have to get fall-down drunk and even then you'd be more likely to harm your baby by dropping them than giving them alcoholic beast milk!

You're fine. And you didn't need to pump and dump as PP have already said.

Thank you everyone. I don't drink a lot so it will definitely be a rarity, but good to know it's safe anecdotally and recommended.
@clottedcreamoverjam - I agree 😂 my only defence is that we bought a bottle of peppermint moonshine when we were on holiday on America. Then i found out i was pregnant and I've waited 11 months to try it. It was only a half shot though. X

Oh also i wasn't pumping and dumping _ i was pumping as my boobs felt like they may explode 😂 (i have an oversupply) x

Or as one of them put it: if you can hold the baby, you can feed the baby

Or, if you can find the baby, you can feed the baby.

Seriously it’s fine.

If you were dead from alcohol poisoning(blood all content of 0.5%) your breastmilk would be about as alcoholic as orange juice or a ripe banana. Drink what you like. Just don’t co sleep when drunk.