Drinking alcohol while breastfeeding

Before deciding for yourself the question of whether alcohol is possible during breastfeeding, you should learn that the liver perceives any alcohol as poison. Small doses of ethanol entering the body along with a moderate amount of high-quality alcohol or medicinal tinctures do not harm health solely because the liver neutralizes the dangerous substances that are formed after the breakdown of ethyl alcohol.

But the liver of a newborn is not able to cope even with microscopic portions of alcohol. Ethanol, which enters the stomach of an infant under the age of three months with mother’s milk, enters the bloodstream, permeates the tissues of the child and is excreted twice as slowly as in an adult. Alcohol intoxication sets in.

Is it possible to drink alcohol during lactation

It is difficult for a person living in a society to behave contrary to tradition. Sometimes breastfeeding mothers find it difficult to resist drinking during the holidays, and sometimes there is simply an urgent desire to drink a sip of beer or wine.

Especially for such cases, specialists from the international organization Liga La Leche, which promotes breastfeeding, have developed a table of the relationship between a woman’s weight, the amount of alcohol consumed and the time required to remove alcohol from breast milk.

The data given in the table are calculated for pure ethanol.

15 ml of ethyl alcohol is equivalent to:

• 35 ml of vodka, cognac, tequila or other alcoholic drink with a strength of 40 degrees;
• 100-130 ml of natural dry wine or 90-100 ml of Cahors;
• 300 ml of beer with a strength of 5%.

A breastfeeding mother who is about to drink alcohol is advised to:

• pre-feed the baby or express the milk intended for the next feeding and put it in the refrigerator (where it will not lose its properties for at least a day);
• the amount of alcohol drunk should be equivalent to no more than 15 ml, in extreme cases – 30 ml of ethanol. This means that you need to drink a glass of beer or wine in small sips and try to stretch it out for the whole evening;
• according to the table, determine the time required to remove ethanol from the body, for insurance, add one more to it – two hours. During this time, you can feed your baby with either pre-expressed milk or formula milk;
• alcohol does not accumulate in breast milk, so pumping and pouring milk should only be done if a woman experiences discomfort. At the end of the term,
• indicated in the table, the milk will clear and again be safe for the baby.

The impact of different alcoholic beverages on the health of a nursing mother and child

There is an opinion that nursing mothers should not drink vodka, and wine and beer are even useful. Let’s try to figure out if this is so.

In addition to the fact that alcohol disrupts metabolic processes in the body, a dose of 30 ml of ethanol suppresses the ability of breast tissue to respond to the hormone oxytocin (oxytocin reflex). As a result, the outflow of milk is significantly more difficult. Feeding after alcohol becomes much more difficult: the baby does not have enough strength to suck out milk, and he receives 20–23% less food than under normal conditions.

We must not forget that beer and wine are the same fermentation products as hard cheeses or pickled vegetables. The use of these products can provoke rashes and other allergic reactions in the baby.

Wine while breastfeeding

There is a myth that the baby will sleep better if the mother drinks a glass of wine before breastfeeding. In fact, the child, having received alcohol through breast milk, will become intoxicated, and the symptoms will be the same as in an adult.

At first, the baby will experience a surge of strength and euphoria, then he will fall asleep really quickly, but not in a deep, healthy sleep, but restless. The baby will often wake up, get nervous, cry.

Beer while breastfeeding

Another misconception: beer supposedly makes more milk. However, it has been proven that beer, like other types of alcohol, can only suppress the oxytocin reflex. Therefore, it is allowed to drink it with the same precautions as wine: occasionally and long before feeding.

But even under these conditions, it is better to drink some live beer than pasteurized. Bottled and canned beer contains a whole “bouquet” of dyes and preservatives, which are removed from the blood and milk much more slowly than ethanol.

Giving your child a “cocktail” of carcinogens is not a good idea. For the same reasons, nursing mothers are prohibited from taking energy drinks.

Frequency of alcohol consumption during lactation

American pediatrician Jack Newman, a prominent figure in the League of La Leche, promotes the idea that a woman during lactation should not strictly limit herself to drinking alcohol. Allegedly a small amount of alcohol drunk by the mother (one or two glasses of wine or beer several times a week) will not harm the baby, since the ethanol content in breast milk is calculated in hundredths of a percent.

Even a non-specialist can see the error in the logical constructions of the American professor. The infant’s body weight is too small, and the body is not yet adapted to deal with the effects of ethanol breakdown products. In addition, the scientist controlled only the physical condition of babies whose mothers gradually drank alcohol during breastfeeding. But the scientist did not trace the fate of the participants in the experiment after its completion.

It has been proven that if a child periodically receives ethanol with mother’s milk, then:

• the baby has sudden mood swings: from euphoria to complete apathy;
• there is a delay in the development of psychomotor skills;
• in especially severe cases, alcohol intoxication of the baby is accompanied by vomiting and stomach cramps, metabolic disorders are possible;
• the heartbeat becomes more frequent, which provokes weakness and suffocation;
• as they grow older, such people often develop an irresistible craving for alcohol.

Therefore, nursing mothers can drink alcohol only in extreme cases, a maximum of 2-3 times during the entire lactation period. It is allowed to apply to the baby’s breast only after the complete removal of ethanol decay products from the blood and milk. It is undesirable to take alcohol before the child is 3 months old. And the most reasonable thing for a nursing mother is not to risk the health of the baby and completely abandon alcohol.