How long do you wait after more than one drink? Breastfeeding?

[Delizhop]

Hello,

I’ve looked online but only get how long you should wait after 1 unit of alcohol.

My baby is nearly 5 weeks, been giving her expressed milk.

I ended up having x2 gin and tonic (cans so one unit each?)
And a can of kopperberg over the space of four hours. Then had a big roast and I’m more on the bigger weight (gained a lot in pregnancy)

Stopped at 18.50. Now 22.30. I don’t feel drunk or even tipsy. Pumped 100ml of milk as mine are engorged. Should I throw this away? Is it too risky?

When do you think I can feed again or pump safely?

Thanks

Very little alcohol is passed through milk. You'll be fine to feed

I've never waited. The amount of alcohol which makes it through to breast milk is absolutely miniscule. There's much more danger with actually being impaired e.g. If you were so drunk you dropped the baby! Hopefully not :)

The only thing to be careful of is never drink and co sleep, not even one. That's usually been what puts me off drinking when my breastfed babies have been little.

Also, I would not heavily drink regularly while breastfeeding. But tbh if you're doing this it's also not great for you, not just the baby.

I would feed her as normal and use the milk.

Think of the percentage alcohol in the blood of someone absolutely bladdered. If you were a vampire and drank their blood, you wouldn't get drunk.

An even smaller percentage will end up in your breastmilk.

I really wouldn't worry. It's not like drinking when pregnant.

I have frequently had a couple of drinks and then BF. The general rule of thumb is if you dont feel sober enough to drive, then don't BF.
I'd go with how you feel rather than figures on units etc. Like PP has said, only a tiny amount of alcohol actually gets into breast milk anyway.

You don't need to wait.

Zero minutes.

I don't! Just feed away!

To echo the above - don’t wait! There is no need

I downloaded an app that counted down the time since your last drink and when you can safely BF. Can’t remember the name of it sorry

My mw confirmed the best time is while feeding, as they'll be drinking milk made earlier and any alcohol will have broken down by the next feed. But also if you're sober enough to hold a baby, there's practically no alcohol in milk anyway.

DS was prescribed medicine for thrush at 3 weeks which had about 10x the amount of alcohol I'd have had in milk if I'd been on a total bender.

I read somewhere that you would have to feel drunk yourself before any alcohol passes into the breast milk and even then it’s a tiny amount.

I so want this to be true. The 2 times I drunk (1 drink each time) early on with my very young baby, even giving it some time after, he slept like a log....unheard of before and for a while after!

To have even a mild sedative effect on the baby you would need to be paralytically drunk, likely in a coma. The danger doesn't come from alcohol in breast milk, it's being drunk in charge of a child - as long as you drink sensibly you'll be absolutely fine.

From memory, the blood alcohol % when you are in an alcohol induced coma, is level with the amount of alcohol in shandy bass - which can legally be sold to children. The largest worry when you are drunk as a skunk is you dropping the baby, not the % of alcohol in the milk (which is equal to blood alcohol)

What everybody else said