So at any given time, the concentration of alcohol in your milk is similar to the concentration of alcohol in your blood. The question is — what is that proportion? Just like your blood alcohol level, breast milk alcohol levels are highest about 30 to 60 minutes after a single drink.
The more you drink, the longer the alcohol stays in your bloodstream — and milk — and the higher the concentration becomes. If you have one drink, most of the alcohol should be out of your system in about 2 to 3 hours, although this can vary. Babies up to the age of 3 months metabolize alcohol at half the speed an adult does, according to the La Leche League. Even older babies process alcohol more slowly than adults do. Your baby also has an immature liver and rapidly developing brain, which may be more susceptible to the effects of alcohol.
Daily consumption of more than one drink per day or excessive drinking by a breastfeeding mother likely contributes to poor weight gain, disrupted sleep patterns, psychomotor skills delay , and possibly even cognitive delay later in life. Babies may drink up to 20 percent less milk in the 3 to 4 hours after mom has had a drink.
They also can have disrupted sleeping patterns after even one drink, and babies whose moms are light drinkers may sleep less than average. A large study published in showed a connection between moms who drank while breastfeeding and lower cognitive scores when their children were 6 to 7 years old. They concluded that this means that the actual alcohol exposure through the breast milk was responsible for the cognitive changes, and not just other factors related to moms who drink.
Animal studies have also supported these findings. You may have heard that alcohol can help you relax and promote milk flow, and that beer in particular can increase your milk production. Having two or more drinks has been shown to decrease the letdown — milk ejection — reflex of nursing moms. Over time, this can decrease your milk supply overall due to not fully emptying the breast with each feeding. An older study actually showed a temporary 23 percent reduction in milk volume after the participating moms had just one drink.
Pumping — and dumping out — breast milk after you drink alcohol does not get rid of the alcohol in your breast milk. If you have two glasses of wine, pump your milk out 30 minutes later, and then nurse your baby an hour later, the new milk you produced in that time will still have alcohol in it, because your blood still has alcohol in it.
Certainly valid! A more effective option is to nurse your baby immediately before having a drink, and then wait 2 to 3 hours after a single drink to nurse your baby again. Rather than let this get you down, consider some alternatives. There are a number of great mocktail recipes you can try making at home — and your other pregnant or breastfeeding friends will appreciate them too! You can also ask the bartender at your favorite spot to make you something refreshing and non-alcoholic.
When it comes to how many drinks you have, alcohol percentage matters, too. Some drinks contain a high amount of alcohol in a small volume.
If you nurse your baby too soon after drinking, your baby will consume alcohol, too. And babies cannot metabolize alcohol as quickly as adults, so they have longer exposure to it. Pumping and dumping is not a quick solution to getting alcohol out of your breast milk. You still need to wait a minimum of two hours for one drink, whether you pump or not. When can pump and dump help you out? In those cases, the mother can pump and dump to relieve her engorgement.
The letdown reflex is also delayed in people who drink regularly, which can result in the baby getting less milk. Eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of water to optimize your milk output. You can safely nurse your baby after the alcohol has left your breast milk. Do I have to stave off drinking completely? Is it OK to breastfeed right after a glass of wine? Will enjoying a margarita harm my baby? Should I pump and dump? We consulted the latest science and expert recommendations to give you the answers you need.
The American Academy of Pediatrics does not tell nursing mothers they must give up alcohol completely. Instead, they advise that the "ingestion of alcoholic beverages should be minimized or limited to an occasional intake to no more than 0.
Someone of greater weight could safely drink a bit more, while someone with a smaller build should consume less to adhere to this guideline.
It takes about half an hour after your first sip before the alcohol enters your breastmilk. This means having a drink just before or even while breastfeeding would most likely be safe. In most cases, eating before or while drinking will also limit how quickly and strongly the alcohol impacts you—and your breast milk. Once alcohol is in your blood, it's also in your milk. Of course, a weaker drink or having fewer drinks will mean less alcohol in your system. A good rule of thumb is if you feel the effects of alcohol, your baby will, too.
Make sure you aren't still feeling the effects of your drink before you nurse. If you are impaired by alcohol, it's in your milk and can affect your baby as well. Waiting an hour or two more will give your body time to remove the alcohol from your milk. Alcohol leaves your milk at about the same rate it does from your blood.
As a result, you will have alcohol in your milk as long as you have it in your blood. You can follow the same guideline you might use for determining if you're safe to drive after drinking when thinking about if your milk is safe for nursing. The length of this process will vary based on how quickly your individual body metabolizes or gets rid of alcohol and how much you've consumed. Factors that influence this process include body weight, body fat percentage, age, genetic factors, the time between drinks, medications you take, and the alcohol content of the drink or drinks.
That's a lot to consider. To simplify, most experts suggest waiting two to three hours after drinking to be safe—longer if you have had enough to drink that you feel drunk. If you feel clear-headed, your milk is likely in the clear as well.
Drinking does not permanently contaminate your breastmilk. Once your body has metabolized the alcohol and your blood alcohol concentration BAC is back to normal, the alcohol is also out of your milk.
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