Out tonight on the wine and I've sent my pump back :(

[SwivelHips]

DS is mixed fed, I usually feed him 2am, 6am, 9am. Tonight is my first night out :) and I stupidly sent my pump back last week.

I'll probably have a bottle of wine (about 10 units) so I wont feed him during the night, in the morning do I have to get rid of all the milk that's built up before I can feed him again? i.e. does the milk 'right itself' with time....

I might need to get DH to suck it out....my hand expressing is pretty dire!!

www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-and-you/family/alcohol-and-breastfeeding - there is no need to pump and dump as the alcohol will not get stored in your milk

You'll probably want to express by hand a bit to avoid engorging, but that won't remove 'alcoholic milk' - the alcohol crosses over from your bloodstream continuously so all the while you've high alcohol bloodlevel you won't want to be breastfeeding.

I'd stick to formula for feeds until you're sure the alcohol is out of your bloodstream. And express by hand (in a warm shower?) if it gets uncomfortable.

Could you also alternate your drinks with soft ones to make life easier. NCT helpline could probably advise you how long to wait before feeding.

Have a fun night out!

You really, really don't need to worry about this, or give formula, or wait, or express (except for comfort). Alcohol gets into the blood and thence the milk in tiny amounts, and passes freely out of the milk....so pumping and dumping is a waste of time.

If you feel concerned that you don't want the tiniest weeniest smidgen of alcohol in your milk, then your own suggestion of suspending bf overnight is more than sufficient :)

Ah thanks ladies, to be honest i'm looking forward to non interrupted sleep (unlikely) so I'm taking dh up on his offer of letting me sleep.
No doubt i'll pay the price tomorrow with a hangover from hell, even though I top up with water as I go....

Raspberry, you know I have never seen any official advice saying 'don't drink and bf' and have never seen it in a book for mothers, or heard of any but the only very occasional doctor or midwife or HV saying 'no' to it, either.

Mothers seem to make up these rules for themselves, without any help from others :)

I remember when I had my first blow-out after having ds (fancy meal with lots of good ). Ds was ebf - can't remember how old he was. I rang my best friend (a GP) to ask for her advice. Ended up talking to her dh (also a GP) and he said it was unlikely to have any effect but if I were to get so blotto (unlikely) that a tiny amount did transfer across, the worst it would do was make ds a wee bit sleepy. And he finished by saying, "and your problem is?....."

I did end up expressing it (only 'cos I was used to expressing), freezing it with a label "alcoholic" and giving it to ds at some appropraite time in the following months....

The La leche league advice is very reassuring and thorough compared to other stuff I've read and doesn't treat women as stupid (Google LLLI FAQ on alcohol).

I think more caution is advised the younger the baby, e.g. Milk bank donors are generally asked to drink no more than a unit a day but then that is often going to premature or v young babies. And also how often it happens i.e. One off night vs regular heavy drinking. I guess if your baby was v young you might want to avoid anything that promotes deep sleep.

I'd imagine that this is a difficult area to research so advice has to be cautious rather than firm?

Bump!