alcohol

[ladybirdsinmyeyes]

Yikes - I've dipped into advice on alcohol and breastfeeding a couple of times and been relieved to see that a small drink or two is regarded as okay. I tend to have half a glass of wine at 6 when hubby gets in and another half with dinner at 8.30. Last night I suggested we both have another inch of wine to finish the very nice bottle and he reminded me I was breastfeeding...he's never finger-wagging about it and we've had a couple of summery drinks in a pub garden too (both times had to breastfeed at the table...) but it made me check again and found a more restricting link saying more than one drink a day has been shown to slow gross motor skills, and other stuff....my lovely lass is 6 months old and still feeds when she wants in the evening up to our bedtime and again at 2 or 3 - am I possibly hurting her?????

I wouldn't worry. Surely an inch translates to about one small glass of wine? so you'd maybe be having 3 units over the course of the evening?

I think too that if you would normally have less, it matters less. Binge drinking every night (and 4 units or more counts as binge drinking) is more harmful than the occasionnal extra glass!

Who did the research? Was it reliable?

Only a tiny amount of alcohol gets into your milk (same concentration as in your blood) and each unit takes an hour to leave your system. I wouldn't worry. I have often breastfed while tipsy and my 8 month old is healthy, happy and walking round the furniture...

LLL says "The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Drugs considers alcohol compatible with breastfeeding" and has an FAQ here
The best advice I heard was to maximise the time from drinking to the next feed, so to feed baby whilst drinking the wine at the same time...especially good fun in front of my dad, he was v shocked, had to explain wine didn't flow straight from mouth into boob!

If you're sober enough to drive you're sober enough to feed.

It depends on lots of factors like your body weight, whether you have food with the alcohol, but I think it takes about 1 hour to process 1 unit of alcohol. So the 1 unit you have at 6 will be gone by 7, the 1 unit you have at 8.30 will be gone by 9.30... doesn't sound like you're ever over the limit for driving, so you're not for feeding either!

Go for it .... wait a bit.... ......

If you are drinking 3 units per night 7 days a week that actually puts you right at the safe limit for women regardless of whether you are bf or not. Maybe think about cutting down a bit anyway?

Very little alcohol gets into the milk, it has more to do with let down reflex which can apparently be hindered by alcohol.

That said, i like a glass or two of wine and probably drink more than you by the sounds of it. DS is happy, healthy and still BFing fine at 5 months. I don't get drunk but have certainly been tipsy when i've fed him in the past.

The limiting gross motor skills is based on women who drink every single day not those who drink occasionally. Kellymom references it here.

Original study here.

How reliable you judge that study is up to you but I believe it's not recommended to drink 7 days a week anyway regardless of gender or bfing status so perhaps having a few alcohol free days would be beneficial for both of you. (Really trying not to be patronising here - I promise!)