Breastfeeding and alcohol is one of the most debated subjects when it comes to breastfeeding your baby. We will try to answer the question “Can I drink alcohol while breastfeeding?” but ultimately only the Mum nursing her baby can make that decision after weighing up all the available information.

Based on the research of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Drugs evidence suggests that alcohol consumption is  compatible with breast feeding and that the occasional drink is not harmful for the baby. However the amount Mum drinks is directly related to the amount that enters the breast milk and they report that there are side effects for Mum and baby if Mum drinks large amounts of alcohol.

The side effects include the following:

• sleepiness
•  weakness
•  abnormal weight gain in the baby
•  as well as probability of dropped milk ejection reflex in the Mum

In the UK the Department of Health says that one or two units a week is not harmful to the baby while breast feeding.

They recommend that if a breast feeding Mum is going to have a drink the best thing to do is feed the baby before having a drink.  One unit of alcohol will have cleared through Mums blood supply in about two hours so it will reduce the amount of alcohol that the baby ingests. However as every breast feeding Mum knows there is no relying on when your baby will want its next suckle!  Other suggestions include expressing milk beforehand if Mum is planning to have a drink and then ‘pumping and dumping’ the milk after drinking alcohol.  However with low alcohol consumption this would not seem necessary.

There is one other consideration to make when deciding whether to drink alcohol while feeding and that is there is some research to show that alcoholism can be inherited.  If this is the case then it may be worth looking at whether there are any alcoholics in your family or your partners family and if there are taking this into consideration while making a decision to drink while breastfeeding. 

As a Mum who breastfed all four babies all of whom are now healthy and intelligent young adults my opinion has changed in recent years.  When feeding my babies my iron count was very low and my health visitor suggested a small glass of stout every day.  I genuinely believed at the time this was fine for my baby and it seems that it has caused them no problems at all.  However in recent years I have become an avid juicer and reading information from Jason Vale who believes any alcohol consumption is not good, my view has changed and I would almost certainly make the decision not to drink anything while breast feeding.

So most experts appear to agree that moderation is the key and one or two drinks a  week while breast feeding seems to have no harmful effects on the baby.  However its only Mum who can ultimately make that decision while taking all the information presented  into consideration.

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