Alcohol & Breastfeeding – The Facts

When it comes to alcohol and breastfeeding, it becomes clear that there are no clear-cut answers. There is a lot of conflicting information out there, so I will try to give you some of the facts.

1. What is known is that alcohol does definitely pass into your breast milk.  The most alcohol is present thirty to sixty minutes after you drink it (without food), and sixty to ninety minutes after you drink if you’ve eaten food while having a drink of alcohol.
2. How your baby is affected by the alcohol is dependent on how much you drink and how often you drink.
3. If you drink large amounts of alcohol, it can result in weakness, decreased growth and weight gain, increased drowsiness and deep sleep in your child.
4. As a mom, you may notice a decrease in your milk let-down reflex and also in your breast milk production.
5. Higher-alcohol drinks will take longer to be excreted from the mom’s system.
6. The weight and size of the mom affects how quickly your body will metabolize the alcohol.

So, as you can see, there are a number of variables involved when it comes to alcohol & breastfeeding.  However, if you are going to have an occasional drink, I think that most experts would say that continued breastfeeding is still the best thing you can do for your baby as opposed to quitting breastfeeding altogether.  The last thing you want to do is quit breastfeeding simply because you feel that there are too many restrictions imposed on you.  My personal opinion (and remember it’s only my opinion) is that moms should avoid alcohol altogether at this time, because there are too many variables and we just don’t really know the long-term effects of even a little bit of alcohol on an infant.  Alcohol is a neurotoxin and sedative, which needs to be considered when making your decision.  If you still are not sure what you should do, I will provide more information in my next post.   Until then, I hope you enjoy your day.