Breastfeeding and alcohol outcomes?

[Rolomajolo]

I hope this is ok to ask but I have read lots of conflicting info about breastfeeding and alcohol- as I understand it, very little gets into breastmilk, hardly any intact. I have also read various academic papers that have said drinking alcohol while breastfeeding causes children developmental issues.

With my second I had only heard that very little gets into your milk so it’s ok to drink alcohol and you’d have to be completely passed out before any alcohol affected your baby- well I feel awfully guilty now as I feel like I’ve hindered her development/intelligence somehow because I have drank alcohol. I have never been black out drunk whilst bf but I have at points had more than recommended and bf as normal.

My question is- for those who have breastfed and drank alcohol, how are your children now? Are they clever? Have they hit all their milestones ok? What are their strengths? What aren’t they as good at?

I’m going out of my mind with worry that I have harmed my 1 year olds development and I wish I hadn’t drank anything.

Please be kind, I already feel bad enough.

Which academic papers have you read about negative outcomes if breastfeeding when drinking alcohol. If you drank enough to kill yourself your breast milk would contain the same amount of alcohol as orange juice.

There were times when I drank far too much (4-6 pints or a bottle of wine as an 11 or 12 stone woman) when I was breastfeeding my DC who is now in secondary school and one of the top in the their year. They are healthy and have a wonderful and sensible personality, has many friends and no developmental issues.

I would give them a last feed in the evening then drink. I think how much you drink and the age of the baby is a factor.
I think the danger is that you would sleep over them and suffocating or be too drunk to look after them or drop them.
Alcohol made my milk supply a bit lower but I just kept DC on the boob longer and rehydrated. I breastfed my DC for 3 years.

If I had a baby again I would try to drink less because of the guilt even though my DC turned out fine it was obviously a crutch for my PND then and I should have got help for that instead of winding down with alcohol. If you have drunk and fed your baby please don't don't obsess about it or google. If you child does have any developmental problems there could be other reasons for them. Children are very resilient, alcohol would have been more harmful when you were pregnant than it is at breastfeeding.

I drank while breast feeding from around 5 weeks. My daughter has been speaking in full sentences demanding daddy gets money for ice cream since she was 18 months so definitely no developmental delay here!! She was very late walking though, so who knows! But no, don't worry, it's absolutely fine.

The "academic" papers you've read are bullshit.

The risk from drinking while breastfeeding is not that the alcohol in your breastmilk will harm the baby (because factually there is almost an undetectable amount - as PP said if you died of alcohol poisoning your breastmilk would be as alcoholic as orange juice), the risk is that drunk people are not capable of safely taking care of a baby. If you're breastfeeding while drunk you're much more likely to fall asleep holding the baby which is v dangerous.

Agree with all of the above. The only "evidence" of alcohol affecting development is from corrrelative studies that fail to take account of parental education, familial neurodiversity, social background, use of other drugs, etc, etc, etc. all of which have a huge effect on development and outcomes.

Enjoy your gorgeous children and dont give it another thought.

Can someone give me the evidence/source re undetectable amounts in breast milk? I'm not disputing it, I'd just like to read it.

@Flopisfatteningbingforchristmas

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30061301/

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32244947/

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0890623816301083?via=ihub&fbclid=IwAR2aIllhPdwHmEzHKmhgTmQnG9PxXXHs_s9jV5PlJSjPEKie9kJiLE3mCBM&fs=e&s=cl

I will try and remember to look at these tomorrow. Its a bit late for me to digest these.