Alcohol and breastfeeding?

[liquoriceandtomatoes]

I've not actually given birth yet but would like to bf. I was wondering how much - if any - people think it is safe to drink whilst bf? I assumed it was best to avoid or have the odd unit then my nct tutor said 6/7 units is fine whilst bf. This sounds like rather a lot to me, what do others drink?

I have three children all who have been exclusively breastfed and am still feeding the youngest aged 18 months. When I had my eldest I was given no advice about alcohol and breastfeeding and so did not really give it any thought and returned to my prepregancy habits, which was occasional social drinking. So it would for example be fairly normal to have a couple of glasses of wine with meals at weekends and on some occasions, like Christmas it would be more. I would try not to drink directly before a feed, but if it did happen like that I woudn't worry. I have since heard plenty of conflicting advice, but have continued to drink moderately while breastfeeding with all three children. Alcohol does get into breastmilk, but I have never noticed any adverse effects from moderate drinking and all three children are healthy and intelligent. It's also worth noting that until fairly recently gripe water was fairly pure alcohol! I wouldn't recomend very heavy drinking but have had no problems drinking moderate amounts with a meal.

Not much gets into the milk, and it leaves the milk at the same rate it leaves your body. So a bit of social drinking is fine IMO.

The kellymom website has info re everything this (sorry on phone so can't link). As above i bf and am happy having a couple of drinks... I have even, on occasion, been tipsy! as mentioned above alcohol does get in to the bm, but in tiny quantities (i have heard it compared to levels that naturally occur in oj). As also mentioned above alcohol has historically been given to children in "remedies" etc. Also in the days pre formula some industrial societies (inc bf mothers) have drank lots of alcohol as water supplies were unsafe. Now obviously i'm not saying drink lots, or give it to your lo! I'm just giving some historical context.

You could always express if you wanted to drink more than you are comfortable feeding with. Personally i haven't bothered. I didn't drink for at least the first month though, didn't even want to!

I regularly have one glass of wine (as in several times a week) and on special occassions I'll have two. I will feed straight after drinking as it's pretty hard not to. Wouldn't risk any more than that though. Partly because I don't know whether or not it will harm him but also because I couldn't bear to have a hangover with a baby - pretty certain they don't mix well!

Just remembered that once my eldest could crawl he would crawl over to us and drop his dummy into our wine so as to suck it off (one of the reasons we got rid of the dummy as it's not much fun drinking wine filled with baby slobber!) and my youngest now likes to go down the recycling and swig from the wine bottles! So definitly no harm with little ones getting tiny amounts!

NHS choices (new NHS direct) have some info here , they say that it takes one unit of alcohol around 2 hours to leave your bloodstream (and milk). so i.e. you should be ok two hours after having one drink.

Kellymom also has good info here.

Am assuming NCT mean 6/7 units a week??? - as otherwise in one go would exceed normal healthy limits anyway - I'd be tempted to ask her to clarify this, - given a lot of the "evidence" will always have contradictory evidence from another source, I'm surprised at NCT specifying 6/7 units are ok. - Am still BF-ing 16mo DD, and with a 3.6yo DS, there are many days when I could happily neck 7 units before tea time , so if she's got some definitive new evidence to show this is beneficial, do come back and let us know!

Enjoy the rest of your pregnancy and sending you positive birth vibes.

Thanks for the advice and for the positive birth vibes - much appreciated Cadifflur.

And yes, from what I could gather NCT tutor meant 6/7 units in one go (no one was asking her, she just came out with it) - the whole class looked rather shocked. She really wants everyone to bf, so it's one way of selling it I guess. But as people are saying here I think I'll just stick to an odd glass of wine.

My LO is 17 months and still feeding. I have a drink in the evenings sometimes - as said the alcohol leaves the milk at the same rate it leaves your body so by evening its fine; the quantities in milk are small anyway.

To be honest I did not have the energy to want a drink until LO was sleeping through - even a small amount of alcohol affects me and I did not like the idea of being tipsy in charge of a small one!! Now she sleeps well at night so I feel able to relax a little!

I am breastfeeding my almost 11 month old and have the odd glass of wine here and there. I didn't in the very early days when it was all so new and breastfeeding was a real struggle and my baby had reflux etc...but as she got a bit older I relaxed.

When I was bfing I would have one or two glasses of wine on a fairly regular basis. TBH, in the first few weeks I didn't have any desire to drink (the desire for sleep over-rode everything else!). Then once we got into a routine I could have a drink in the evenings knowing that DD wasn't likely to wake for a while anyway. If I was going out or it was a special occasion and I wanted to drink a bit more, I wouldn't feed till the next day, just used expressed milk.

IslandIsla- I'm the same! Had a sip of wine the other day and could feel the effects. I've no interest in alcohol at all really at the moment & would prefer not go tipsy minding the baby... just in case! I was always a lightweight with alcohol though :-)

Typing on phone... Should have been "to be tipsy"!

Reminds me of the time when I was planning a major celebratory meal post birth (ds was about 3 months old), planning to drink a lot some of the really good wine that I hadn't had while I was pregnant.

Rang a GP friend to ask advice about whether I should pump and dump or whether I could freeze it. His answer? "Well, some of it might get into the mil if you drink a lot, in which case it might make your ds a wee bit sleepy. And your problem is.....?????????!!!!!"

I compromised and froze it with a label saying "alcoholic" and gave it to ds at a later, appropriate time :)

liquorice - check with your NCT teacher. I am an NCT breastfeeding counsellor and I can't imagine any scenario where I or my colleagues would really say this.

We don't say 'X is fine'. We would share the info that it takes about 90 mins for the female body to process 1 unit of alcohol, so if you want totally alcohol free milk you could do the maths.

Alcohol passes in and out of breastmilk very freely - just as it does in and out of blood. Very little gets into the milk anyway - but some women prefer to avoid or do to the timing thing. It is really not worth pumping and dumping - it doesn't speed up the process of alcohol leaving the milk, so what's the point?

6/7 units is about half a litre of wine. Less than 2 per cent of the alcohol gets into the milk - so what's that? 2 teaspoons or 10 mls, which would be spread out over time (it's not the same as actually giving the baby 2 teaspoons of wine, which you would not do, I am sure :) and would be a lot less if you did not feed the baby during this time.

Given that this is not likely to harm the baby, it is a matter of personal choice. IMO.

A friend said to me recently; "If you can see the baby, see you nipple, and latch them on, you're sober enough to feed 'em!" I like that theory...

My local BFC told my friend: "if you're happy to drive, you're ok to feed" which I think sounds quite sensible.

prettybird - I know it's a typo, but I'm pmsl at "it might get into the MIL"

DancingThroughLife! You're right, it was a typo. The thought of MIL.......

Sirboobalot i love that theory! Lol!

Also lol at the drunken ebf mil!