All about beer
No. If you have one alcoholic drink and wait four hours to feed your baby, you won’t need to pump and dump . And if engorgement and milk supply are not an issue, you can just wait for the liquor to metabolize naturally. Alcohol doesn’t stay in breast milk, and pumping and dumping doesn’t eliminate it from your system.
The amount of alcohol taken in by a nursing infant through breast milk is estimated to be 5% to 6% of the weight-adjusted maternal dose. Alcohol can typically be detected in breast milk for about 2 to 3 hours after a single drink is consumed.
Wait at least 2 hours after drinking one standard drink before nursing your baby. Be aware that the more you drink , the longer it takes for the alcohol to clear your system. If your baby needs to be nursed before two hours or more is up, use your previously expressed milk to feed your baby.
If you decide to have a beer or a glass of wine while breastfeeding , it’s important to time it right. “ Breastfeeding moms should wait between two and three hours before nursing from when they had a drink ,” Crowe says. “If they have two drinks , they should wait twice as long , so at least four to five hours.”
If you drink alcohol while breastfeeding , it’s best to nurse your baby right before having your drink , and then wait 2 hours or more before you nurse your baby again.
Research has also found dangerous impurities can occur in human breast milk , including bacterial food-borne illnesses if the milk is not properly sanitized or stored, and infectious diseases including hepatitis, HIV and syphilis.
However, exposure to alcohol above moderate levels through breast milk could be damaging to an infant’s development, growth, and sleep patterns. Alcohol consumption above moderate levels may also impair a mother’s judgment and ability to safely care for her child .
But, according to Milkscreen, infants can safely consume breast milk with an alcohol concentration of approximately 0.03%.
What happens if baby drinks breast milk with alcohol ? Drinking small amounts of alcohol occasionally won’t affect the breastfed baby .
Many breastfeeding mums choose to stop drinking alcohol, however, occasional light drinking while breastfeeding has not been shown to have any adverse effects on babies. Alcohol is best avoided until your baby is over three months old and then enjoyed as an occasional treat.
Darker beer filled with extra barley and hops (both a galactagogues, which stimulates the hormone prolactin to increase milk supply) is one beverage that is known to increase your milk supply. Specifically, a milk stout is one of the best beers to indulge in while breastfeeding.
If you’re a breastfeeding mom limit yourself to an occasional alcoholic drink, and no more than one a day. For a 130-pound woman that means no more than 2 ounces of liquor, 8 ounces of wine, or two beers in a 24-hour period. If you have too much to drink and become intoxicated, don’t nurse your baby until you’re sober.
Because alcohol does pass through breast milk to a baby, The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests avoiding habitual use of alcohol. Alcohol is metabolized in about 1 to 3 hours, so to be safe, wait about 2 hours after one drink (or 2 hours for each drink consumed) before you nurse your baby.
Alcohol does not increase milk production . In fact, babies nurse more frequently but take in less milk in the 3-4 hours after mom has had a drink, and one study showed a 23% decrease in milk volume with one drink (Mennella & Beauchamp 1991, 1993; Mennella 1997, 1999).
The takeaway. If you’re worried about the contents of your breast milk, pumping and dumping is certainly an option. Luckily, dumping out pumped milk is an option you may not often need, since occasional, moderate use of alcohol and caffeine shouldn’t require you to pump and dump .