Is my baby small because I drink?

[YellowFin]

Done to death, I know - I've read the archives, read Kellymom, read Hale...

... but would you indulge me in a quick spot of WWYD ('what would you do')? Or SIFG - should I feel guilty, if you prefer.

I've a wee little chap, three months old. He gets comments on being small - been 9th centile for a long time, recently dropped to second centile. Exclusive bf.

I have the odd drink in the evenings. Some weeks I have a small beer every night of the week, some weeks a doiuble baileys or large glass of wine every other day. My absolute maximum consumption was half a bottle of wine. Also put away two coffees a day.

Has the drinking affected his growth?

Generally, I follow what I've read, and my dhs views, that i don't drink much, and it's not bad for baby. Other times i think I must be a potential alcoholic, or at least not able to cope with stress constructively, if I'm drinking anything with such a tiny baby. What would you do?

I recall that I was fairly pleasant Edam ..
Well,as pleasant as one can be at 2:00 am alone in a hospital having anti-coagulants injected into their 37 week pregnant stomach.

"A HV can always be relied on to drum up a dark cloud over your one bit of pleasure."

lol, but sadly too often true.

Charts are designed for formula fed babies, aren't they? And breastfed babies gain weight at different rates, no?

Those red books should be ceremonially marmalised, imo.

Edam, I like your profile, I remember I like Trucking, I like trucking etc from NTNON! And Staples Corner is always murder, I know it well!

lol at moondog and the stupid consultant daring to challenge you, ha ha, I'd like to have seen that!

Wow , I'm suprised at everyone saying its ok to drink whilst bf a young baby .

I'm not saying its not ok, I don't know any statistics but I always panic when I have a small shandy or a small cider. And dd is 18months and only on 2 bf a day!!! Maybe I'll relax a bit more about it now.

Whenever I go out and feel like a drink , I only have one and everyone always says 'have another' but I don't as I thought it would be going straight to dd.

Dr. Jack Newman, member of the LLLI Health Advisory Council, says this in his handout "More Breastfeeding Myths":

Reasonable alcohol intake should not be discouraged at all. As is the case with most drugs, very little alcohol comes out in the milk. The mother can take some alcohol and continue breastfeeding as she normally does. Prohibiting alcohol is another way we make life unnecessarily restrictive for nursing mothers.

Quite Magnolia.
The best thing about b/feeding (apart from nutritional aspects) is that it liberates you!!
No way could I have done the travelling I did when my babies were tiny if it had meant lugging bottles and sterilisers about.

I'm another one who only survived early parenthood with the help of a nice glass of wine.

And er actually one of my children appears to be quite average in size which is pretty amazing considering both her parents are notorious shortarses.