Is it ok to.....?

[ladypop]

Have a couple of glasses of wine of an eve if I'm not bf again until about 6.30am? Little one is 10 wks and formula fed in between x

The NHS website says that drinking alcohol can affect the milk supply, the let down reflex, an infants development and sleep, and digestion. www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/958.aspx?categoryid=54&subcategoryid=135#close

The recommendation is to drink no more than a couple of units and bear in mind that every 2 hours you metabolise 1 unit of alcohol - so if you drink a bottle of wine (10 units) at midnight, then you're not clear to feed until 20 hours has passed (8pm the following day)!

You mention a couple of glassed of wine, which boils down to what size glass you use. Two 250ml glasses would obviously be around 6-7 units and still leaves you unable to breastfeed from 12 midnight until 2-4pm the following day.

If you want to feed at 6:30am then you need to have only 1 large glass of wine at midnight (3-4 units) to be clear of affecting baby or milk supply by the morning.

Yes of course. So very little gets into your milk that it has no effect, although my let down reflex was affected if I fed within an hour or so of having a drink.

A consultant obstetrician I know actually recommends that BFing mums have a glass of wine before the evening feed with colicky babies as it can help them settle.

Enjoy your wine

Ooh I'm so pleased!! I'm imminently awaiting arrival of second baby and all I've craved for weeks is baileys on ice. My DH had better get some in ASAP!! Can't wait to see mil's face!!

atrcts your maths are wrong :)

It does not take 20 hours to metabolise 10 units - the metabolising is cumulative...the units don't stand in a queue waiting to be metabolised.

The NHS website is prob overly cautious - moderate drinking does not affect healthy babies.

For sensible info, see the breastfeeding network's factsheet on alcohol - google breastfeeding network and find their list of info.

Are you sure? Isn't that why many people drink 'over the limit' and don't realise they're drink-driving to work the following day?

I was assuming that a bottle of wine wouldn't be drink within the same hour, but slowly over several hours ....

In not saying DON'T have ANY, but am saying the guidelines tell you how to play it safe, which the OP seemed to be asking about

Yes, I'm sure.

People may well be still over the limit the next morning if they have had a late night drinking session.

You were just multiplying the number of units by 2 and coming up with 20 hrs - ie 8 pm the next evening.

It really doesn't work like that.

tiktok just said what I was going to say! You would really need to be atrociously drunk the night before to still have dangerous amounts of alcohol in your milk the next day - like, a level of drunkenness that would be dangerous to you, let alone the baby!

You're fine. Drink the wine. Go for it.
I have a couple of small glasses in an evening perhaps two or three times a week - and my DS still has a night feed.

If you work out how much alcohol is in the wine, and then how much actually gets into your bloodstream, the amount is absolutely tiny. Chocolate cake and a small glass of wine each evening helped me stay sane and feel more like a human and less like a milking machine.

Here's an idiot proof guide to YOUR personal Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) metabolism.

Its not anyones 'misinformed' calculations Can't argue with that!

www.alcohol-stuff.co.uk/tools/bac-calculator/

Well, alls I can say is I regularly have 1 or 2 glasses of wine and feed :). I'm a BF mum not a martyr to the cause and it never seemed to have any probs on supply or baby.

Enjoy :)

Thanks folks! Tbh, anymore than 1 glass at the mo is too much to be dealing with night feeds anyway! Lol x

Yeah, it's more the terrible possibility of a hangover with a baby that stops me having more than a glass or two.