Can you drink alcohol whilst breastfeeding?

[Gangle]

If so, how much and how do I know DS won't turn out to be an alcoholic!

No. I tried this (only a bit), ds slep through but puked in the morning. It can go into breast milk.

You can but just don't go too mad or feed him too soon after drinking. The alcohol leaves your milk as it leaves your body.

have no idea what the official answer oughta be, but i do know I've happily had the odd glass of wine or Guinness and my kids aren't showing alcoholic tendencies yet

kellymom on alcohol

I drank while BF both of mine and they're fine but I tended to wait till after they'd had the last feed of the night so there'd be no alcohol in the milk at their next feed. DS1 did get boozy milk once though

Yes you can!

If you are feeling noticeably 'drunk', or over the limit, I would suggest it's too much - but it's too much then to be looking after a baby anyway, really. A nice glass of wine of an evening will not be a problem.

My answer would be yes, more than whilst pregnant but less than before children.

It's a bit of a crap answer. I think a couple of glasses is fine, esp if you try to drink immediately after a feed so that you have a couple of hours to metabolise the alcohol before you next feed. I am most definitely not an expert though, so please take this as an opinion and wait for someone clever like hunker or tikto or aitch.

Sorry all you other clever people, cross posts! Didn;t mean to 'diss' your answers!

This paragraph from kellymom says it all really:

In general, if you are sober enough to drive, you are sober enough to breastfeed. Less than 2% of the alcohol consumed by the mother reaches her blood and milk. Alcohol peaks in mom's blood and milk approximately 1/2-1 hour after drinking (but there is considerable variation from person to person, depending upon how much food was eaten in the same time period, mom's body weight and percentage of body fat, etc.). Alcohol does not accumulate in breastmilk, but leaves the milk as it leaves the blood; so when your blood alcohol levels are back down, so are your milk alcohol levels.

I drank the same amount as I had during pregnancy.. no more than one unit a day.... that is proper units not home measures

I find a bottle of pinot grigio helps DS sleep very well!

Seriously though, give the last night time feed, then a couple of glasses of wine before your bedtime won't hurt at all. If DS needs a night-time feed, 1 unit of alcohol takes 1 hour to go from your bloodstream, and the amount of alcohol in breastmilk is much less than that in blood.
I find a glass of wine helps me to relax = faster letdown.

I will probably get lynched for this post, but, hell - if you can't enjoy a glass of wine of an evening.....

Why would you get lynched gingerbear? The experts agree with you

Oh, I was too slow with my typing Lyra!!

I have a small glass of wine maybe about half my evenings (typically I will have a bottle over a week and then nothing for a week), and feed ds2 as and when he needs it - even straight after or during that glass of wine. It is fine.

I bet french mums never even ask this question.