Alcohol whilst Breastfeeding

ACK Manda who was at coffee the other day could have told you, I'll give her a message, she is partially trained in midwifery and a breastfeeding mummy!

Mind haven't drunk for a year now and so 3-4 drinks might make me drunk LOL

so Linelle did you drink at your engagment party - how much if you did. As I explain above would like a few drinks but won't if it means I can't breast feed for too long afterwards. I am planning for Rhyley to stay at my mums so it will be at least 8 hours after I have stopped drinking that i will feed him again, plan to express enough for 2 to 3 feeds and I am not going to drink to the point of intocication either.

With Paige I used to have 2 glasses of wine every now and then. I had a cocktail at New Years Eve and have had a couple of glasses of wine. No effect whatsoever and I tell you if there was ever a baby that was going to react to something in my milk - Blake Would!!! LOL

Mum has always maintained......Once you start to feel "warm" or slightly happy..thats when you need to stop.

I think with a lot of these warnings if you read the studies etc they are targeted at people who are going to drink every night and drink excessively who dont have any kind of inclination about what it "CAN" do.

Same as when you are pregnant. I had been out partying and living it up but not EXCESSIVELY (ie 5 times a week) for 8 weeks before Paige was "discovered". When I did find out I still had the ocassionaly wine here and there. I guess there are some people that take it to the extreme and do not touch it which is cool and good on them.

P.S Paige is gifted - way ahead at school..who is huge & generally healthy and there are no flies on her!!!

La Leche

There is no need to pump&dump milk, alcohol leaves breastmilk in the same way it leaves the blood stream. So if you know that x units will leave the blood stream in x hours then you'll know when it's safe to feed again. However, you may well need to express for your own comfort if you feel full, and this milk should be disgarded if you know that you're still a wee bit inebriated! (But again there is no need to pump and dump unless you feel uncomfortable!) Here are some guidelines:

Have some expressed breast milk ready in the fridge or freezer
Breastfeed your baby before going out
Give instructions to your baby sitter on how to warm and give the expressed breast milk
In general, if you are sober enough to drive, you are sober enough to breastfeed
If you are over and above the safe driving limit, allow 1-2 hours per unit of alcohol before breastfeeding your baby
If you are drunk – don’t feed your baby from the breast until the following morning. You could express milk for comfort's sake and discard it but there is no need to express for the sole reason of getting rid of *bad* milk
Make sure that a sober person is caring for your baby
Avoid drinking if your baby is under a month old or premature as they will take longer to metabolise alcohol from their system
Babies under 3 months detoxify alcohol at around half the rate of an adult. An older baby or toddler can metabolise the alcohol more quickly.
Don’t sleep with your baby if you or your partner have been drinking

I went to a friends 21st when Jack was about 3 months and I had maybe 4 mudshaker rtds which are about 200ml and 4% and fed him at least 8 hours later after giving him an expressed bottle. I hand expressed as much as I could into the sink before bed.

The first thing my plunket nurse said when I met her was "you know you can drink while you are breastffeding just wait 8 hours" so thats what I have always done. I was also told if you are too drunk to drive you are too drunk to b/f.