BF and caffeine?

hi girls
well within a week (hopefully) i will have my little girl and am planning to BF.
i drink alot of soft drink (prob 2litres a day before i got pg and cut down to 1 or 2 cans a day while pg), was told by midwives etc that 1 or 2 cans a day during pg is fine, similar to 1 or 2 coffees caffeine-wise.

i really did try to quit caffeine but got the worst withdrawls and decided to try stick to just the 1 or 2 a day after having bubs and not revert back to my 2 litre a day habit!:rolleyes:

i was wondering does caffeine pass thru breast milk and if so, when is the best time for me to have my soft drink (i.e. before, during or after feeding)? is it similar to alcohol where you need to wait for it to be out of your system for BF? and will me drinking caffeine pass thru to bubs and keep her awake??

I guess from my experience I didn't think about it much. I still had my 2 coffees in the morning and every few days DH would make or buy a proper one.. I drink way to much coke (zero) still same caffiene though I think.

I think every baby is different so if you find baby is more wakeful watch what you are eating and drinking..

Good Luck.. Not long to go now

In my experience drinking caffeine makes my DS's eyes stick out on stalks ....
One night I didn't think and drank 1.5lt coke over the course of an evening and he was awake for 7 hours straight .... it was horriffic....LOL

I remember being told to be careful for the first 10 weeks, past that stage things stop effecting them as much. Coke has much less caffeine that coffee, so two cans a day would be fine.

I didn't worry too much, but I also didn't worry about listeria that much in pregnancy and both were drama free for me. It is truly personal choice.

The catch is that caffeine is "meant" to dry up your supply. In my case found the exact opposite, caffeine (and alcohol) made me produce more milk... a LOT more...

thanks girls
cookie: ive tried to drink lots of water but i really hate it, will try keep my water intake up while BF but its so much easier to drink soft drink...at least its liquid of some sort i suppose.
i dont drink coffee or energy drinks or anything like that just enjoy a can of coke with my lunch and dinner...knowing me my bubs will probably be used to getting the caffeine while pg, in fact one of my midwives said tit would be better for me to keep having caffeine than give up cold turkey cause it might shock my body too much to quit!

Honestly darl,
DF and I have just started sugar/coke & him: energy drink detox and feel like crap. When you are about to give birth, or have just had a baby it is not something you are going to want to put your body through. The first few days are so hard with bubs anyway, if this has been a regular habit for you it will be much easier for you to continue it . Maybe try buying the mini cans for the first few weeks and see how you go?

I think you'll be fine but breastfeeding is soooo different for everyone that it is hard to know! All the best with the impending labour and birth, and OMG look at you 39 weeks!!

I've had to cut out all caffeine from my diet, yes my eyes are hanging out of my head!!
It just makes my DD so windy, just something to keep in mind if your new bubba seems to get a lot of wind.

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I've had to cut out all caffeine from my diet, yes my eyes are hanging out of my head!!
It just makes my DD so windy, just something to keep in mind if your new bubba seems to get a lot of wind.

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LOL maybe thats why DP farts so much :rofl:
he works in a servo and prob drinks 3 or 4 energy drinks a day :rolleyes:

I'm a coffee addict and like you I tried to give up. It wasnt pretty! So I still drink my 3 cups a day. It doesnt seem to have any effect on ds. Maybe because I drank it while I was pg. I think they build up a tolerance if you had it while your pg.

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I'm a coffee addict and like you I tried to give up. It wasnt pretty! So I still drink my 3 cups a day. It doesnt seem to have any effect on ds. Maybe because I drank it while I was pg. I think they build up a tolerance if you had it while your pg.

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yeah thats what i was hoping...
thanks for the advice ladies, at least i can go back to one of my vices!

I read yesterday in one of Pinky McKay's books that caffine can stay in a newborns system from anywhere between 72-90 hours! :o I drank coffee during my pregnancy and the only thing that would cure my morning sickness was Coke. I still have one coffee a day, but if I've had no sleep and have two or three coffee's, I see a difference in DS.
I guess its different for everyone. Good luck-hope this last week doesn't drive you mad!! :lol:

Ashton has a terrible reaction to coffee :( I love iced coffee but I can't drink it and when I do Ashton throws up for a good 2 hours after feeding, and that is only after 1 small carton.

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Ashton has a terrible reaction to coffee :( I love iced coffee but I can't drink it and when I do Ashton throws up for a good 2 hours after feeding, and that is only after 1 small carton.

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oh that sucks hun, do u think its the caffiene though or the cows milk?

Hi,

I'm new to this forum - I tried to post on your thread here but I didn't get published - I think because I gave a website link???? I was trying to direct you to the australian breastfeeding website - they have an article on caffeine and how it effects breastmilk.

I can't even find how to PM you on this website either to send you the link privately if it's not allowed?

My son is 12.5 months old and I am still breastfeeding him. I gave up coffee during pregnancy and when I did have the occssional 1 when he was younger it seemed to effect him with restlessness. I have only just started having a morning coffee again now as I'm only down to a morning and evening feed for him.

Good Luck with your impending arrival!

Belinda:D

i found caffeine made DS crazy, but it differes person to person and baby to baby.
the problem I had was being able to finish a coffee before it went cold, there was never time!

Like someone else said caffeine stays in your body for at least 24-48 hours, the exact time depends on how your body metabolises it.
So if it effects your babe, then there is no good time to have it. But fingers crossed it isn't an issue for you and you don't have to worry about it!

I have a 'real' coffee every morning and we don;t seem to have any issues here.

I limited myself to a couple of cups of tea per day, no more, during pg and then kinda was in the habit by the time DD was born. So for the first six months when she was exclusively bf I stuck to decaf coffee. BUT this was so I could continue to have tea and also so that the occasional soft drink or piece of chocolate wasn't on top of too much caffeine already.

You should be careful not to have too much (see the ABA guidelines that Belinda posted) and keep an eye on your baby, but you don't have to abstain altogether.

Congratulations on reaching such an exciting part of your pregnancy and well done for thinking through little things which may influence/effect your bf journey with your LO. I really believe that this sort of preparation can make a lot of difference in your early babymoon.

As previously mentioned, all babies will react to caffeine differently just as most adults will. You will find out how your baby is when they arrive! But at least here you have received some good advice of what sort of things to look for in your bub if they are showing signs of intolerance. Then you can deal with your soft drink vice then if it is an issue ;).

With regards to upping your water drinking, bear in mind that bf mothers need lots of water! I felt almost a pathological need for water to drink when I was bfing in the early days. ....and I was a person who never drank water before hand! As soon as my DD attached to the breast I was gagging for a drink. If I didn't have one ready, and DH did not deliver asap I turned into a mad woman. :lol: Poor DH wasn't used to having to jump when I asked for something so it did create comical exchanges between us.

Keep this in mind, keep a number of big bottles of water around the house when baby arrives so that wherever you stop to feed, you have access to it. Keeping hydrated will also help with your milk supply.

Enjoy this next short time as you wait on the arrival of your LO, it is such a beautiful time.

I will have 1/1.5cups of coffee straight after the first morning feed. By the time the next feed is due, I guess most of the caffine is out of my system.

I would suggest to have your drinks straight after a feed so it should be mostly out of your system by the next feed

I have always had a couple of caffeine drinks (coke or coffee) during my pregnancy/breastfeeding and it doesn't seem to effect bubs at all. BUT I have found if I go over my 1 or 2 drink limit it does keep Jack awake.

:D
I'm a cokehead too lol, couldn't live without the stuff... I drink heaps of water during the day but often I find myself sneaking into the fridge to treat myself to a glass of Coke, I HAVE to have Coke with my dinner or it doesn't feel like it digests properly hehehe... probably more due to habit than anything being wrong with my guts, but that's the way it is...
I never drank coffee until I had DD, I remember being in hospital after having her and pleading with DH to bring me some good-quality stuff (the hospital only had that watered-down, bitter dishwatery stuff) as the lack of sleep was just KILLING me, and it was winter so I wanted a nice warm drink in the mornings to perk me up a bit...

When we got home from hospital DD was feeding every 2-3 hours and I was giving her EBM and formula in bottles, and expressing once I put her back down, so I soon fell into the routine of getting up with her at around 5:45-6am, feeding her, putting her back down and expressing for half an hour, then I'd have a coffee and a ciggie straight after storing my milk and then I'd go back to sleep until her next feed at 8:30-9ish... I don't think it affected her at all as by the time I was due to express again the caffeine had, for the most part, passed out of my system. I suppose it's a bit like smoking while BFing - they say if you *have* to do it, do it straight after a feed so that by the time they're due again, it's gone from your milk, kwim?

I didn't worry much about Coke at dinnertimes (in relation to expressing times), it didn't seem to interrupt her patterns or make her act any differently (eg more irritable etc) than any other times of the day when she wasn't getting caffeine from my milk...

Just try to get into the habit of more water, I hate the stuff too and I only really like it with a squirt of lemon juice or even vinegar to give it a bit of flavour... maybe try a cordial like Lemon Lime Bitters (you can get it at Woolworths and other supermarkets, I imagine) to give it a bit of kick and encourage you to drink more? I did notice while I was bfing/expressing that if I didn't drink a s***load of water it dried me up a little and made it harder to get anything out, and I got a lot more tired too.

Good luck :D But nah, I wouldn't worry much about Coke, maybe try drinking most of your daily allowance in one part of the day and see if it makes any difference to bub around that feed, and then decide if you need to cut down?