"Alcohol free" beer & breastfeeding

[Mummasdiary2021]

I was going to have an alcohol free beer.. They are 0.5% alcohol... So really low but still some in there nonetheless. Previously I had been waiting 2 hours before nursing again.. Is it necessary to wait this long? I can't find any guidance on such a small amount of alcohol so was unsure how long to wait etc but it has really helped my milk supply so I'm having one now and again.

Please help :)

Posting here for traffic

@LaMadrilena

This thread is really interesting. In my antenatal classes (I've got a 7-w-old) here in Spain, we were told absolutely no drinking while breastfeeding, and that the alcohol levels in breast milk would be the same as in blood. Still v low, obviously, but they said it would be passed to the baby.

I'm not saying this to argue against previous posts, I just find the different information a bit surprising! I'll be doing more research, because I'm absolutely desperate for a beer!

And obviously a 0.5% beer is going to be completely harmless, so OP definitely don't worry about it.

They're actually totally right that the alcohol levels in breast milk are the same as in your blood - but that's exactly why the advice in the UK is that it's fine. If your blood alcohol level gets to 0.40 then you're so drunk you could die. That would make your breast milk 0.4% - which is the same amount of alcohol as is in a ripe banana. Obviously you're very unlikely to be feeding while so drunk you're in a coma so your breast milk would always be less alcoholic than a ripe banana.

@Brown76

Is the amount in your blood (milk) not enough to get someone drunk because it’s diluted in effect, by the rest of the blood in your body?

It's basically like if you tried to get drunk by drinking the blood of a drunk person - you couldn't because their blood will always be less alcoholic than OP's beer.

It's completely different to during pregnancy, when the baby is getting the alcohol directly from your bloodstream into theirs, so they're getting as drunk as you. People often talk about drinking 'while pregnant and breastfeeding' as if they're one and the same but they're not.

@EverdeRose

If you're sober enough to hold the baby your sober enough to feed the baby. The amount of alcohol transferred to breastmilk is unbelievably small, you don't need to wait to feed, pump and dump or anything else, there's no need to regulate your drinking more than you would if you were formula feeding and in charge of a baby.

This. You would need to be paralytically drunk (passing out) to have enough blood alcohol to affect the baby, and even then the effect is tiny, just mild sedation.

You can have normal beer, don't worry!

I would sometimes drink real alcohol when feeding. Never had a drunk baby. If you’re sober enough to hold the kid without dropping it, you’re sober enough to enough to feed. Just don’t cosleep. But @Mummasdiary2021there is no chance you’re even remotely pissed on that.

@TheVampiresWife

My midwife told me to have two pints of Guinness every day while I was bf Granted this was 20 years ago but still!

Enjoy your beer OP 🍻

My grandmother was instructed to drink Guinness when pregnant - lots of iron in it apparently!

@TooMinty

You can drink "real" full strength beer while breastfeeding if you like. The amount of alcohol that passes to the milk is tiny, I think you'd need to be falling down drunk before it would be enough to harm the baby (and then obviously you wouldn't be safe to be in charge of a baby...)

Don't do it if you co-sleep though x

This

My midwife told me to have two pints of Guinness every day while I was bf grin Granted this was 20 years ago but still!

When I was BFing, whenever we had stew with Guinness in it, DD slept right through the night.

I once read read an analogy of having a glass of wine or bottle of beer when breastfeeding is like pouring a shot of whiskey into a swimming pool for how much it actually affects your supply. Just have a normal beer! As long as you're not getting stark raving pissed it's fine

Recent research- best to drink whilst bf! Then by the time of the next feed your liver has the maximum time to process the alcohol!

Plus if you are under the drink drive limit, that's what to not go over.
If you shouldn't drive then it's too much.

Cheers!

It's fine to have a drink or two. Seriously. I'll get a link to an article which explains it.

expectingscience.com/2017/07/31/drinking-while-nursing-7-things-to-know/

There is absolutely no reason to restrict alcohol intake while breastfeeding unless you are planning to get absolutely trashed. I drank as normal while bf. Never skipped a feed, never pumped and dumped, bf my baby with a glass of wine in hand in tapas bars in Spain. Unless you are an alcoholic and becoming catatonic after drinking 2 bottles of wine, your baby will be absolutely fine.

@LikeSomeKindOfMadness from my research, 0.5% fine in pregnancy. The stat which stuck with me:

A person drinking these products would have to drink about 16 glasses of wine or about 7 bottles of beer within about 15 minutes to register one unit of alcohol in the body.

Recommend lucky saint and Brooklyn lager AF! Just make sure to have fewer than seven in 15 mins

This came up at the breastfeeding support group I went to and the practioner said what everyone here has - that alcohol is metabolised by nursing mothers, rather than transferred as is the case for pregnant women. Totally different mechanism. Therefore it's fine to drink. Not to get blotto but then you wouldn't do that while in charge of a baby anyway

The only restriction is no co sleeping as you may sleep too deeply and roll, especially if you're already tired.

@SeeYaBeYa i mean it's not disputed that alcohol is in Breastmilk, its just the quantity is absolutely minimal. You'd really need to drink a lot before it had any effect