Breastfeeding

When Did You Have Your First Cocktail?

jennamarie05jennamarie05 member
edited August 2016 in Breastfeeding
With so many opinions, I'm looking for real answers from real, breastfeeding mamas. NO JUDGEMENT here!

I'm certainly not talking about really having a wild & crazy night out on the town, but rather when after giving birth did you first allow yourself a glass of wine or 2 with dinner or a beer on the deck enjoying a summer evening? 

Re: When Did You Have Your First Cocktail?

  • I had a dark beer about a week after having baby. Dark beer is great help for milk production !! I had a few glasses of wine a few weeks after that . Now baby is six months I'll have a drink every once in a blue moon 
  • I had a beer within the first week and have one beer/wine many nights after the baby goes to bed.  I do it when I know she won't be eating for hours (it'll be out of my system by the time she does) and always have bottles of pumped milk available in case.  
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  • I waited until DD was on a semi-regular sleeping schedule.  I would have a drink right after she went to bed, knowing she wouldn't wake up until at least 4 hours later.  I was lucky that she was a good sleeper and she got to that point pretty early.
  • LO put himself on a consistent 3-hour schedule as soon as he was born, so I actually had some champagne while still in the hospital. Not much, though. I believe I drank a nice, dark beer the day after we came home. Yum! 
    LO is four months now, and I drink a beer several evenings a week after he is down for the night. 
  • I had a glass of wine about a month after DS was born.  Now I'll have a glass maybe once or twice a week, but never more than one a day
  • I had a glass or so of wine or a beer once a week while still pregnant. As far as afterwards I don't remember actually drinking anything until he was 3 months old. I don't drink at all now which I find somewhat ironic since I was drinking a moderate amount during pregnancy, but I don't like the way it makes me feel. Even just a small amount makes me feel sick. 
  • I drank an occasional glass of wine while pregnant, slowly and with a meal.  Once DD was born, she was eating every 2-3 hours for a while, so I didn't drink at all.  As soon as it got to where I could put her down in the evening and know she'd be out for at least 4-6 hours, I would have a glass of wine at dinner again.  that's really all I want to drink - a glass of wine with dinner.

     

    That said, alcohol appears in breastmilk in the same percentage as it does in your blood.  So you know how the legal limit for driving in most states is .08% or whatever?  Right.  That's not 8%, that is 8 hundreths of a percent, or 0.08/100.  And that is the concentration it will be in your breastmilk.  For reference, beers are typically somewhere between 6-12% alcohol, as is wine, and liquors vary but average is probably 40-60%.  If you casually had one beer that was 8% alcohol, your blood alcohol level would be well under the legal limit, which means your breastmilk would also be underneath that concentration.  Your baby's organs have the ability to metabolize small amounts of alcohol.  Unless you are getting trashed and then immediately breastfeeding, cut yourself some slack.  If you want to have a beer or two, it is fine.

  • The first week after I had my fourth baby I had some wine. 
  • delujm0 said:

    I drank an occasional glass of wine while pregnant, slowly and with a meal.  Once DD was born, she was eating every 2-3 hours for a while, so I didn't drink at all.  As soon as it got to where I could put her down in the evening and know she'd be out for at least 4-6 hours, I would have a glass of wine at dinner again.  that's really all I want to drink - a glass of wine with dinner.

     

    That said, alcohol appears in breastmilk in the same percentage as it does in your blood.  So you know how the legal limit for driving in most states is .08% or whatever?  Right.  That's not 8%, that is 8 hundreths of a percent, or 0.08/100.  And that is the concentration it will be in your breastmilk.  For reference, beers are typically somewhere between 6-12% alcohol, as is wine, and liquors vary but average is probably 40-60%.  If you casually had one beer that was 8% alcohol, your blood alcohol level would be well under the legal limit, which means your breastmilk would also be underneath that concentration.  Your baby's organs have the ability to metabolize small amounts of alcohol.  Unless you are getting trashed and then immediately breastfeeding, cut yourself some slack.  If you want to have a beer or two, it is fine.

    Right. Lets say you have a beer that is 6% alcohol. And your blood alcohol level reaches .08%. That means baby is only drinking a liquid with .08% alcohol in it. So the amount of alcohol entering her digestive tract and blood would be so low she would have no problem metabolizing it. 
    BabyFruit Ticker
  • At 3 weeks postpartum when she had her first bottled of pumped breastmilk 
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