Breast feeding can you drink wine

By Lauren Ferranti-Ballem June 18, There are certain experiences that earn you an invisible parenting badge. It was a weekday, in the middle of a heat wave. I had a seat on a patio in the shade with a friend, ice cold pints and a sleeping baby snug and sweaty in my carrier—a mat-leave triumph moment. When he woke happy but wet, we trotted downstairs for a quick change. As he lay on the filthy concrete floor, with my postage stamp-sized change mat offering hilariously little buffer, he kicked his legs happily and giggled, and I realized: Mommy is buzzed.

That one beer, the heat and the good vibes had me giddy. The short answer is yes. Alcohol is one of the most readily absorbed drugs known and alcohol does pass from your bloodstream into your milk. Alcohol levels reach their highest in breast milk about minutes after drinking or after minutes if you have had something to eat while you are drinking. Alcohol is not stored in the breast so as your liver metabolises the alcohol causing your blood alcohol level to drop, so does the alcohol level in your breastmilk.

As your blood alcohol drops so will the level of alcohol in your breast milk and pumping and dumping will not speed up this process. Any breast milk that you express during the time that it takes for your blood alcohol to drop will still contain alcohol. The alcohol will not work its way out of the milk, once outside your body, and any milk pumped while you are affected by alcohol will need to be discarded. The more drinks that you have, the longer it takes for your body to clear the alcohol from your system.

Some studies suggest that the amounts of alcohol moving into breast milk are very low compared to the alcohol consumed so that the amount of alcohol that your baby actually gets is minimal and the amount of alcohol ingested by a breastfed infant is only a small fraction of that consumed by its mother. Other studies say that for every unit of alcohol one unit of alcohol is approximately a single 25ml measure of spirits, half a pint of beer or half a standard ml glass of wine then there is a period that you should wait before feeding your baby.

The time that is suggested to wait before feeding you baby varies on. Mothers who ingest alcohol in moderate amounts can generally return to breastfeeding as soon as they feel neurologically normal.

As a general rule, if you are sober enough to drive you should be sober enough to breastfeed. Everybody metabolises alcohol differently and your metabolism of alcohol can vary from day-to-day. The Australian Breastfeeding Association has a handy App to help you work out how much time you may like to wait. Download the free Feed Safe app for Apple and Android devices. 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. If you do have an alcoholic drink, make sure you allow at least a couple of hours for the alcohol to go through your system before your next breastfeed.

By the time the alcohol is in your system, your baby will have finished feeding. If, on a single occasion, you have a little more alcohol than you had planned to or if your baby needs to feed sooner than you had anticipated it is OK to breastfeed your baby. Yes, it does. Keep in mind that newborns metabolize alcohol at about half the rate of adults. The amount of alcohol taken in by a nursing infant through breast milk is estimated to be 5 to 6 percent of the weight-adjusted maternal dose.

The amount of alcohol in your milk mirrors the amount of alcohol in your blood. Your amazing body works in tandem: As the level of alcohol in your blood decreases, the level of alcohol in your milk drops too. Nevertheless, the American Academy of Pediatrics AAP has a different take, quoting a study that found that maternal alcohol consumption while breastfeeding harmed child development.

Although, the same study pointed out that there could be environmental and genetic explanations for this observation, and the AAP recommends further research. Keep in mind that you should limit your alcohol intake based on your weight. People with less weight will need more time to metabolize alcohol. Does beer increase your milk supply?

It depends. While the barley used to make beer contains a polysaccharide that increases prolactin and therefore milk production, alcohol decreases milk production.

So drink smart and opt for nonalcoholic beer if you want to indulge in more than one. What if you want to enjoy an alcoholic beverage before your baby is weaned? Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center.

Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Obstetrician Kathryn Newton, MD , has the facts about alcohol and breastfeeding and how to keep your baby safe if you indulge. You can consume alcohol if you know how to time it and how much you can safely consume. It takes about two hours for the average adult to metabolize one drink. When you metabolize alcohol, your body processes and breaks it down.