what do you think about drinking while you are breastfeeding?

[Floweryfields]

Not judging anyone - just a question if anyone can answer - if what you say about the amount of alcohol in the blood and the milk being the same and therefore not dangerous unless you are pretty well dead -
Why then is it considered dangerous to drink before baby is born - if the amount in the blood then would be the same as the amount in the milk after?
Seems a bit odd to me that it would be considered okay after birth.

[Tinks]

That makes total sense ausgirl! I wonder.

[MantaRay]

Ausgirl, drinking while pg is a very different situation. The alcohol gets to the baby through the placenta and has been definitely shown to be harmful to a developing foetus. Alcohol gets into breastmilk by a different mechanism and the amount of alcohol that gets in there is less than what goes through the placenta. Also, I'm sure it makes a difference that a baby is not still a developing foetus.

[alioops]

In pregnancy baby is getting your blood too, so baby's BAC would be the same as yours. Drinking that percentage is nowhere near as strong as it being transfused straight into the blood stream.

[sloane]

when DS was sleeping for 4-6 hours for his first sleep of the night, i had a couple of glasses of wine. now that he's back to 2 hourly wake ups & he wants to be fed back to sleep, i'm not drinking alcohol. i've never had more than 2 glasses of wine/champers though because of the risk mentioned above of being in a good state to care for your baby. not to mention that they have no idea if you have a hangover & won't sleep in to let you sleep it off!

[HotI]

this is how i understand it-

When you are pregnant, bub shares your blood and so if your blood alcohol is 0.05, then bub's is too. 1) they are going through massive development and this level of alcohol in a little person has greater impact than a grown adult. 2) certain periods of time are when greater development is occuring, or greater development that may be affected by alcohol consumption, and these vary somewhat betweeen babies- so it's hard to predict on which day a drink will have an effect and when there will be no effect to the bub.

When you are breastfeeding, and your blood alcohol is 0.05, then your milk would be 0.05, and so bub is having a drink that contains 0.05% of alcohol. This amount of alcohol is then filtered through all of the blood volume of the baby which means the babies blood alcohol level is much lower than 0.05.

[MrsFabuloso]

I have one or two when DS is sleeping his longest sleep of the night. I will only have a few in case something were to happen and I had to drive somewhere.

I had a thought, with the drinking during pg too, besides the fact feotus' are still developing in the womb and can develop abnormalities as a result of alcohol poisoning, bubs organs (liver and kidneys in particular) aren't developed when they are in the womb, so I would think their bodies just can't cope with the influx of alcohol. Maybe when they are born, they are well developed enough for their bodies to cope with a little bit of toxins to filter through their bodies??

[Junglemum]

What Kate said. :yeahthat:

So if you had, for example, an alcoholic drink that was say 400ml at 7.0 alcohol your BAL might be 0.05. If your baby then had 400ml of breastmilk with the alcohol content at 0.05 their BAL would be around 0.00035. They are obviosly very rough figures but gives an idea.

A baby would probably get more alcohol from rescue remedy.

Sure no alcohol is best, but i do have a glass now and then.

[briggsy's girl]

i decided when DD was a couple of months old, that denying myself alcohol altogether wasn't smart - as with everything, if you can't have it at all, you crave it and then when you DO have it, you tend to binge (well, a lot of the time you do!). anyway, i decided i'd have a drink after DD went to bed one night (her first sleep for the night was about 5 hours at the time) - and after one, i just thought yup, i've had it, don't want any more now! and that's how it's been ever since. if i feel like a drink, i have it. i've not had a day where i've wanted more than one yet! i will have a sip of DH's beer at anytime without worrying about it getting to DD - some days i'll have an beer myself - but i work on the theory that if i want it, i have it, then i don't crave it. craving it makes it into something more than it really is, and it's more the "forbidden fruit" thing that makes you drink lots

funny thing is - knowing that i can allow myself to have a drink without worrying about it, i don't seem to want it! was going to have a drink after DD went to bed last night - and once she went down i thought about it and decided i'd have water instead! lol

[NaeNae]

I have a very very weak black russian every other night while feeding DD with DH and while I am hanging out for a red wine I reckon after not drinking for over 12 months a sniff would be enough to send me flying .

I read on the aba flyer it takes 30-60 min for the alcohol to reach your bm so if you timed it well you could have a drink and there would be non in your bm for bub itms.

Nae x

[alioops]

this is how i understand it-

When you are pregnant, bub shares your blood and so if your blood alcohol is 0.05, then bub's is too. 1) they are going through massive development and this level of alcohol in a little person has greater impact than a grown adult. 2) certain periods of time are when greater development is occuring, or greater development that may be affected by alcohol consumption, and these vary somewhat betweeen babies- so it's hard to predict on which day a drink will have an effect and when there will be no effect to the bub.

When you are breastfeeding, and your blood alcohol is 0.05, then your milk would be 0.05, and so bub is having a drink that contains 0.05% of alcohol. This amount of alcohol is then filtered through all of the blood volume of the baby which means the babies blood alcohol level is much lower than 0.05.

Precisely, exactly what I was trying to say.