Wine?

Is it okay to have some (1-2 glasses) wine (or equivalent) from time to time while BF?
Risks/benefits?
Thanks.

 

I've heard say it is fine. I am not one to do it, but that is just me.

 

I did, try to have it right after you feed and by the next feeding the alcohol is gone from the milk anyways I would probably stick with 1 glass, I always stuck with just one beer, but I'm not sure what the alcohol ratio of the two is so 2 glasses might be fine too.

So far I have an almost 10 yr old who is in the gifted classes, a smart little 5 yr old who just started school, and 2 almost 3 yr olds who drive me crazy with what they get into

 

Alcohol passes in and out of your breast milk just like your blood stream. There is a hotline in Canada you can call that will do a calculation for you based on weight. For me, (I was 140 lbs at the time... those were the days!) 1 5 oz glass of wine, 1 beer, or 1 shot of spirits would take about 2 hrs and 30 minutes to pass out of my milk. So occasionally once the kids were sleeping through the night I could have a couple glasses of wine without worrying about it. Another benefit: dark beers are a galactogogue! Which means that they help you produce milk and it is a fun word to say. As in: "Back off, I am drinking this beer because it is a galactogogue."

 

I'm drinking a beer right now! I nurse Emmett at 7:00pm, when he goes to bed, at which point I may have a beer or a glass of wine, and then he doesn't nurse again until 10:00pm/10:30pm.

Here's what Dr. Jack Newman says in his Myths of Breastfeeding: "5. A mother should not drink alcohol while breastfeeding. Not true! Reasonable alcohol intake should not be discouraged at all. As is the case with most drugs, very little alcohol comes out in the milk. The mother can take some alcohol and continue breastfeeding as she normally does. Prohibiting alcohol is another way we make life unnecessarily restrictive for breastfeeding mothers."

And from Kellymom: http://www.kellymom.com/health/lifestyle/alcohol.html

And from LLL: http://www.llli.org/faq/alcohol.html

 

I had actually read that excerpt by Jack Newman.
But, I'm always interested in your thoughts and opinions, too.
It's nice to have a little treat every now and then.

Rachel-- Off topic, I see that our boys were born a few days apart. What is your/Emmett's general schedule right now?
Nathan will be 10 weeks old tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to a more predictable schedule in the coming weeks (although it isn't bad now--the night feeding can really vary depending on the day). I don't yet put Nathan in his nursery for any naps (he's still cat napping throughout the day - downstairs with us - with maybe a couple of longer ones thrown in) and the older he gets, I think my older boys are starting to disturb him more, preventing good sleep throughout the day.

 

Mostly non-existent!

He usually takes about 4 naps a day - but at completely different times & for completely different lengths of time. He can only really be awake for about an hour at a time before he gets cranky/overtired, so I try to keep an eye on that. I'm pretty militant about him taking his naps in his crib. We have a white noise machine in there which is helpful with all the noise from the girls. Night wakings are fairly consistent at about every 3 hours, although he's been throwing some longer stretches into the mix recently (which I don't mind at all!). Other than that, I just try to stick to the EASY routine (eat, activity, sleep, you). I'm definitely looking forward to settling into something a little more predictable. :good:

 

I am not a doctor, but I think that overall everything in moderation will only benefit your health. Well 1-2 glasses of wine is really quite a small amount. I wouldn't measure in glasses though, because everyone's idea of glasses is different.

 

1-2 glasses of wine or a glass of beer to relax and sit pleasantly for at least a while, exhale and then continue your active life is fine. It is worth being concerned when a person constantly increases the dose of alcohol and becomes addicted, and the purpose of taking alcohol is to get away from their life. In such cases, addiction treatment los angeles will be a necessity. I don't think this is relevant to you, but suddenly there are people with such problems among your loved ones.