Breastfeeding and Alcohol

steph311psu

FTam here. My husband and I had a wine and movie night last night after my LO was asleep for the night. I ended up having an entire bottle of wine! When do you think would be an acceptable time for me to BF? I had refrigerated BM bottles on hand last night and today. I had my last drink around 1030 last night and BF the first time today around 11:30 am. My husband thought this was plenty of time to have the alcohol leave my system, but I'm doubting myself still. Thoughts?

ecloho

My lactation consultant told me if you are sober your milk is sober (as a rule of thumb) so as long as you aren't drunk or feeling buzzed while feeding or pumping the milk is fine for baby

mamaklemond

It's all in relation to your body weight and how fast you metabolize the alcohol. My rule of thumb is for one drink I allow AT LEAST 2 hours, I try to do 3, before feeding LO from the breast. I'm 5'7 and 140 lbs, I feel that after 1 drink and 2 hours I'm not feeling any signs of intoxication which is supposedly a good indicator of if it has left your blood. You can also purchase test strips from Walmart to test the alcohol level of your breast milk if you are really concerned.

rottielove

I read to not BF while drinking and then 2-4hrs afterwards. I went to a concert last night, had a few beers. Last one at 11pm BF again at 9am

ecloho

One beer does not get me buzzed, especially One with low alcohol content. I have breast feed right after finishing a beer or even sipped one while feeding. Based on that rule of thumb I mentioned above, "if you are sober your milk is sober." Of course using good judgement- not going to drink a 6 pack or hard alcohol. Also know your body and how YOU react to alcohol

sarahsairsair

I was told it leaves your milk fairly quickly - so the nurse said to me if I have 1 or 2 glasses of wine, wait 1-2 hours before feeding.

clairelange

Fine to drive, fine to drink. I wouldn't have more than 1 drink, and then leave it an hour. So your time fora bottle is surely fine imo

mirrenrue

I also was told if you no longer feel the effects of alcohol, it's not in your milk. Your body metabolizes it like twice before it even gets to your milk. But I think everything regarding parenting is "to each his own". Do what feels right for you guys.

mlindon

I was told by LC the concentration in you milk is the same as in your blood. So if your legally drunk BAC of .08 that's also the alcohol content of the milk which is very low. .08 vs 6 percent in a beer. This in comparison to inutero when your baby has the same alcohol content in their blood as you do.

All that said, if I drink I wait until I am no longer buzzed before I breastfeed.

mers90

I was told you should pump for 48 hours and dump it if you had more than 1 glass of wine an one of my friends pumped and checked the milk's PH after drinking some glasses of wine and it took a little less than 48 hours to go back to normal so now I've seen proof that that's the correct time.

ecloho

I don't like wine, but @mers90 "some glasses" of wine is pretty broad/vague amount. I drink one beer, but not every day.

mers90

ecloho said:

I don't like wine, but @mers90 "some glasses" of wine is pretty broad/vague amount. I drink one beer, but not every day.

She shared exactly 2 bottles with her husband for their anniversary, he drank 1 or 2 more than her so she had 1 bottle -1 glass.

ChristyM87

rottielove said:

I read to not BF while drinking and then 2-4hrs afterwards. I went to a concert last night, had a few beers. Last one at 11pm BF again at 9am

Actually I have read that breastfeeding while drinking is fine because if you are drinking your first drink there is no alcohol in your breast milk since it doesn't get there that quickly.

I have had a beer at a time a few times since baby. Since it is only one drink I have not waited to feed and just let LO eat whenever they are ready

cls2015

Pediatricians say that as long as you aren't feeling the effects of the alcohol, you are okay to breast feed. Two different docs told me this.

ecloho

@ChristyM87 I have sipped a beer while BFing.

@cls2015 I have heard exactly the same thing!! My LC said "if you are sober, your milk is sober!" She said people over use the term "pump & dump" cause it rhymes lol

mcb0110

I also have heard that having a beer (one every couple days) can help your milk production... Something about the yeast in the beer. I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard good things! And I'm sure a glass of wine is okay, my doctor said a glass while pregnant was okay (every now and then, not every day), so I would guess if it was okay while pregnant, it would be okay now. I'm not a drinker, so I can't speak from experience.

tasharchibald

I went to a concert with some friends and drank while there. Pumped afterwards and dumped that milk because I still felt a little buzzed. Went home felt fine so I fed the baby. (The concert was 2 hours away). He didn't act any different than any other feeding. Wasn't overly sleepy or anything so I'm assuming he didn't get anything or that it didn't affect him.

LacieMac

I have drank a couple glasses a few nights and before bed I pumped and dumped, the next time I went to feed my milk was good. I have the test strips and this seemed to work