Fetch Mommy a Drink.

September 21, 2005 7:49 PM

Anyone here ever have a drink while breastfeeding? If so, what were you told about alcohol and breastmilk, how much and often did you drink, and did you notice any effects on your baby, then or later?

I know this sounds like a horrible question, and I'm not hoping to get permission to go on a bender. I miss the occasional glass of wine or beer with dinner, and I'm curious about how the restrictions on alcohol seem to be less stringent in Europe than in the US. I know that too much drinking can cause damage, and I don't plan on putting my palate ahead of my baby's health, but I sometimes suspect that the flat-out restriction on any amount of alcohol is due, in a large part, to American puritanism.
Did anyone, especially outside the US, ever feel comfortable with the odd glass now and then? And if so, define "now and then."

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (16 answers total)

my mother and grandmother advised a small glass of beer to help me in breast-feeding. it worked wonders.

my kids--now university students-- seem fine. they both like beer, not excessively thank god. i like it too--

as i recall, the effect that a little beer has in "letting down" the milk is very rapid, a few minutes--so i wonder how much alcohol really is in the milk.

but i never drank much when my children were small, and even later, because i felt i couldn't afford having my senses dulled. i needed every bit of sleep-deprived and anxious attention i could muster. now things are different of course, i can enjoy that fuzzy feeling a glass of wine or beer brings!
you will too--some day.
posted by subatomiczoo at 8:00 PM on September 21, 2005

This FAQ response from La Leche League seems to indicate that a bit to drink isn't going to do any damage at all.
posted by louigi at 8:07 PM on September 21, 2005

I think there is a huge difference between a glass of wine, beer or a mixed drink occasionally while breastfeeding or pregnant and being a substance abuser while breastfeeding or pregnant.

This is entirely anecdotal, however.

I know that my mother drank alcohol while I was in utero and I'm fine. Really. Really! Damn it, I am!

I am in Canada. I'm 40. In conclusion, if someone I knew was pregant/breastfeeding and occasionally had one glass of wine or a beer, I would not think she was an awful person. I think total abstinence is going above the duty of a mother, but I have no problem with those that do so to be on the safe side.
posted by Savannah at 8:10 PM on September 21, 2005

And expect the puritans to shake their bony fingers at you here, too.

Listen. Do it.

I had a glass of wine maybe once a week when I was breastfeeding, and it seemed to me that the babies were a little sleepier when I did -- but I wasn't sure it wasn't just that I was looking for that effect. I am sure it did them no harm.

Indian food, though -- they hated that. That I had to leave out entirely. Which killed me, because I knew that there must be some hundreds of millions of babies who like Indian food fine in their breastmilk.
posted by Methylviolet at 8:11 PM on September 21, 2005

I think there is a big difference between drinking while pregnant and drinking while brestfeeding. Drinking while pregnant should be avoided at all costs. All it takes is 1 molecule in the wrong place and at the wrong time to produce a chile with Fetal alcohol syndrome. Of course it doesn't happen all the time, but the risk is there and taking such a risk is stupid.

Drinking while breastfeeding is a whole different story and I suspect that in moderation it is not going to do harm. I think subatomiczoo's points are most valid
posted by edgeways at 8:29 PM on September 21, 2005

er.. child, not chile, of course
posted by edgeways at 8:29 PM on September 21, 2005

Purely anecdotal, but...
My wife drank daily while breastfeeding our son, now 13. He is scary smart, very well adjusted, physically active etc, etc, etc. I don't like the pregnancy/breastfeeding nazis.
posted by johngumbo at 8:57 PM on September 21, 2005

I think the problem is that many people do not stop at one drink. Other problems are knowing the alcohol content of a particular drink and standardizing size. This is why you hear so much of a push for no drinking at all during breastfeeding. It's not so much that a small amount of alcohol will cause problems during lactation -- it's setting metrics for that amount. So it's just easier to say "no drinking".
posted by acoutu at 9:09 PM on September 21, 2005

... but I sometimes suspect that the flat-out restriction on any amount of alcohol is due, in a large part, to American puritanism.

My husband and I decided a long time ago that these kind of maxims for pregnant/breastfeeding women have plenty to do with fear of excess. acoutu touches on something similar. When people have no concept of moderation, it is easier just to tell them "just don't do it."

As for me, I am not a big drinker, but I had the occasional glass of beer/wine while nursing both of my kids. It didn't seem to affect them. I did get drunk at an office party when my first son was six months old, and he did seem sleepier than usual when I went home and fed him.

A girlfriend of mine who's a doula collects vintage birth and childrearing tomes and has a "how to breastfeed" book from the 70s. One of the tips for getting started is to have a glass of beer to help you relax and let down. heh.

So, an occasional belly-up to the bar is really no big deal. Cheers!
posted by whatnot at 9:35 PM on September 21, 2005 [1 favorite]

My ex-wife, who is a trained midwife, would have the occasional single beer or glass of wine with no qualms, and no effect on our daughter either.

Oh for the days when nursing mothers were prescribed a daily bottle of stout!
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 9:52 PM on September 21, 2005

My girlfriend drank a little when breastfeeding and our daughter is also "scary smart", cute as a button and the centre of my Universe.

So I say don't worry about it and enjoy your nice relaxing glass of wine, heaven knows you deserve it.
posted by fullerine at 10:26 PM on September 21, 2005

KellyMom, which is a great evidence-based site, has information on alcohol and breastfeeding.

I do think people need to understand moderation before imbibing. I had one friend who would drink 2 or 3 mugs of Canadian beer while nursing her son. There's a big difference between a mug and a glass and between a Canadian beer and a US one. Her son (now 3 or 4) is kind of dozy, but that might be genetic. :)
posted by acoutu at 10:45 PM on September 21, 2005

My mother was told that a good glass of stout a day was the way to do it (30 years ago).
posted by tomble at 11:39 PM on September 21, 2005

My wife breastfed our kids to 12 months, and gave up alcohol (well maybe half a glass at new years) during pregnany. Both she and I would be what US people calll binge drinkers (we drink enough to be very happy if we go out to a bar). Our policy when breast feeding was to express milk to cover the time of absence until you would be able to drive legally again and have Dad deal with them in the morning (so Mum gets a break). Expressing several feeds can take a couple of days.
When our kids were very little (less than 6 months) they came with us to a party or two, and to the pub for a Sunday roast on occasion (in fact the pub roast was my eldest daughters first ever outing). After that they were minded by family if we had an occasion which invloved drinks.
I find the anti-alcohol views put on parents ridiculous, have yet to find any basis for them in medicine (short of complete derelict alcoholism) and suspect they are mainly a puritanical reaction.
I'd be interested in a study that measured the added stress on new parents this approach delivers, and whether it has a negative effect!
All that said, alcohol probably isn't health positive in total, so please don't take this as encouragement to drink, just a defence of reasonable moderation.
posted by bystander at 6:01 AM on September 22, 2005

My wife would have a glass of red wine daily during breast feeding. A close friend was advised by her doctor to have a stout (see? those days aren't past!).
posted by plinth at 7:23 AM on September 22, 2005

Alcohol is the best non-gaseous smooth muscle relaxant I know of, which is probably why it helps in 'letting down' the milk.

I don't see that a drink or two while breastfeeding would cause any problems. The small amount of alcohol in the breast milk would be wiped up by baby's liver pretty darn quick.

Getting tanked on a fifth of cheap bourbon and then chasing it with a twelve of beer, and breastfeeding, on the other hand, seems like a bad idea.

Also, it disrupts my ideas about the sanctity of motherhood; doesn't breastfeeding happen in sunny meadows, full of chirping birds and butterflies that land on Mom's shoulders and tickle baby's nose?
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:18 AM on September 23, 2005