Alcohol and Breastfeeding

I was told to drink a bottle of Guinness Stout each evening to increase my milk supply by the Lactation Consultant at the hospital. I did that for about a 3-4 weeks when my son was 2 or 3 months old. He's 14 now and in the gifted program at school (6'1" so it didn't stunt his growth either!). [I eventually had to resort to supplementing with formula and gave up the beer]

Hello T B, I too love a nice glass of wine and am still breastfeeding my 6mo. There is a great product called, Milkscreen that you can buy at Wallgreens. It tests your breastmilk for alcohol levels. I call it a breastalyzer! =) I think you can buy either a 3 or 15 test box. Enjoy that glass of vino!

If you are going to have 2 glasses of wine, breastfeed right before you do. then, make sure you drink plenty of water (at least 1 8oz glass per drink) and then by the time the baby is hungry again, you should be fine.
Breastmilk is filtered, but you can never be too sure! :)

I agree, it's really hard to find consistent information out there about how much alcohol is "safe" while breastfeeding. Some of the things I've read say that if your body has metabolized it, then it is generally assumed that it won't reach your milk. I also agree that most Americans (and American organizations) take a pretty conservative view towards alcohol consumption while pregnant and breastfeeding. It's a pretty personal choice. For me, if I plan to drink, I tend to do so right after I've fed my daughter and I make sure I've stopped at least an hour before her next feeding. The only time I refrained from having an occasional glass of wine or beer was when she was first born.

However, I did find this article:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/10...

It's rather long, but interesting. I skimmed it, but did see this (the numbers in the text are footnotes):

"Because alcohol is excreted to a limited extent in breast milk,5,8,9 occasional exposure often is considered insignificant,8,10 except in such rare cases of intoxication when the mothers of breastfeeding infants drank quite heavily11,12 or when infants were inadvertently fed large amounts of alcohol in a bottle.13 Moreover, an epidemiologic study14 found no significant difference in the motor and mental development of 1-year-old breastfed infants whose mothers drank less than one drink per day, compared with either breastfed infants whose mothers did not drink at all or those who were formula-fed. Only those infants who were exposed regularly (at least daily) to alcohol in their mothers' breast milk, showed a slight, but significant deficit in gross motor, but not mental, development. Perhaps the developing brain is extremely sensitive to alcohol or the small amounts ingested in breast milk accumulated in the infant because it is metabolized or excreted more slowly than in children and adults.14"

Hello TB: As the mother of 5, I found that it was easier to sacrifice some things that I wanted to be sure of the safety of my children.
My daughter in law was told that if she drank a glass of wine or beer a daily basis that it would have consequences of possible autism like symptoms. Which I lnow can be rare but something to think over.I know that it has been proven that nicotine goes directly into breast milk and can cause problems. I know that in Europe people drink wine like we do bottled water.
So your child is going to be little and nursing for a short time compared to the rest of your life so follow your heart and see if itis worth the sacrifice for now. Nana G