Drinking beer while breastfeeding: benefits and risks associated with it. Yeah, what are the dangers associated with drinking beer while breastfeeding? Bornfertilelady’s article aims to elaborate on this.
Although the dangers of alcohol use throughout pregnancy are well established, and there are clear guidelines to avoid alcohol throughout pregnancy, the dangers of alcohol consumption during nursing are less well recognized.
When individuals seek medical counsel on the safety of ingesting alcoholic drinks while lactating, they often get conflicting answers. Providers and patients must navigate the scant data available information on this very important issue.
Professional organizations’ advice differs due to a lack of clear research on breastfeeding and alcohol use.
The World Health Organization encourages avoiding alcohol during lactation, while the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asserts that infrequent alcohol use comparable to eight oz of wine or 2 beer cans per day may be acceptable and that breastfeeding should be delayed for 2 hours after the last drink.
Similar guidance is provided by the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, which also acknowledges that the long-term consequences of alcohol in human milk are unclear.
Even though the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends waiting at least 2 hours after a single drink before breastfeeding, an ACOG Committee Opinion recommends that “a mother should be encouraged by her health care provider to wait for 3 to 4 hours after a single drink before breastfeeding her infant.”
So, what’s the final verdict on drinking beer while breastfeeding: benefits and risks associated with it? One has to be sure, especially a nursing mother, to know what you are getting into if you are gonna be drinking alcohol while nursing.
Drinking beer while breastfeeding: benefits and risks associated with it – This is the main focus of this article.
Drinking beer while breastfeeding: benefits and risks associated with it – Does drinking beer while nursing have any side effects like affecting the child you are breastfeeding?
Can the alcohol get into the breastmilk and get sucked by the child along with the breastmilk? And if that happens, how does it affect the child?
This article today aims to answer all these questions and more.
It also aims to give a final verdict (after so much research and answers from various health professionals) on whether drinking beer while breastfeeding is safe for the baby and you as well – Drinking beer while breastfeeding: benefits and risk associated with it
Read on to know whether drinking beer while breastfeeding: benefits and risks associated with it.
Breastfeeding and Alcohol (Beer)
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcohol does transfer into breast milk, therefore the best approach to be safe is to avoid drinking at all.
They do add, however, that modest doses of alcoholic drinks are not believed to cause substantial damage to newborns. “Drinking alcoholic drinks is not a signal to discontinue breastfeeding,” according to the CDC.
According to Jessica Madden, neonatologist, MD, IBCLC, medical director, and pediatrician at Aeroflow Breastpumps, moderation is the key. She says that nursing moms should limit their alcohol consumption to one per day.
Dr. Madden suggests a one-ounce serving of beer with roughly 5% alcohol content or proof.
Furthermore, Dr. Madden, like the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), advises waiting a length of time after drinking alcohol before nursing.
“It is recommended that you wait for at least 2hrs after drinking yet another drink before breastfeeding,” Dr. Madden says. “Alcohol may be discovered in the mother’s milk, and the concentration levels are normally greatest 30-60 minutes after alcohol use.”
Every nursing experience is unique. If you have any concerns about drinking beer while nursing, speak with a healthcare expert about your specific situation.
Drinking Beer While Breastfeeding: Benefits and risk associated with it
You’re probably looking forward to eating all of the foods you’ve been avoiding throughout pregnancy after your kid is born.
You might have heard that drinking a small amount of alcohol (especially beer) will help you enhance your milk production. After months without booze, this may have sounded like music to your ears.
Is this, however, true? (Spoiler alert: It’s just half-true.) Is it okay to consume beer while breastfeeding? (In a nutshell, maybe.)
We went into the data to obtain the true facts regarding whether beer and nursing are a match made in heaven to help you make the best-educated choice about consuming alcohol while breastfeeding.
We don’t want to be a downer, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends avoiding alcohol entirely when nursing.
But, since we know that life isn’t often so simple, we went further into the study. Keep reading to find out what you want to find out about; Drinking Beer While Breastfeeding: Benefits and risk associated with it.
Drinking Beer While Breastfeeding: Benefits and risks associated with it – What are the benefits of drinking beer while breastfeeding?
Someone may have advised you to drink Guinness to enhance your breast milk flow. What gave them the idea? Are they correct?
Beer seems to have been recommended as a milk-boosting substance as long back as 2000 B.C., and the notion of beer being used for this reason has been advocated in different cultures for millennia.
Low-alcohol beer was even promoted expressly for nursing mothers in the USA as early as the 1800s and continues to do so today!
The findings, however, do not always support enhancing milk production.
You may be pleased to learn that the barley component of beer may increase prolactin production. However, the alcohol in beer reduces milk production and prevents your milk ejection reflex due to releasing as much milk.
According to previous — but fundamental — research done in 2001, as a consequence of this slowed milk ejection response, newborns ingested around 20% reduced breast milk in the first 4 hrs after consuming alcohol than before, although spending the same period also on the breast. (Likewise, when mothers pumped inside of 2 hours after having alcohol, they received much less milk than usual.)
A possible solution? A beer without alcohol! This beer has the galactagogue (milk surplus) properties of barley without the harmful side effects of alcohol.
Aside from the fact that a lot of us like occasional alcohol, there aren’t any benefits to drinking it while breastfeeding. “There are no overall health benefits to drinking alcohol while nursing,” Dr. Madden says.
Can Beer Help You Get More Milk?
Many parents wonder whether beer is healthy for their child’s milk supply. Some of the components in beer, you’ve undoubtedly heard, may have this impact.
“Anecdotally, barley and hops have been shown to improve milk production,” Parks says. Nevertheless, there is no research to back up this assertion. And, as Parks pointed out, alcohol may have the reverse impact, inhibiting the milk ejection reflex and causing your infant to consume less milk.
“For the majority part, there has been very little study on galactagogues,” Parks notes. “Nothing boosts milk production more than milk removal.”
Despite this, some mothers swear by the potential of beer to improve supply. In this scenario, Parks pointed out that non-alcoholic drinks or beer, which also includes barley and hops, may provide the same benefits.
Drinking Beer While Breastfeeding: Benefits and risks associated with it – What are the risks associated with drinking beer while breastfeeding?
Yes, there are risks associated with drinking beer when nursing, even though you take beer in small quantities, because beer (alcohol) passes into breast milk, and as your child gets breastfed, he/she also ingests this alcohol along with the breastmilk.
Yes, alcohol can enter your breast milk. Alcohol levels in breast milk are normally greatest 30-60 minutes after consuming an alcoholic beverage and may be detected for roughly 2-3hrs per drink after consumption.
However, the amount of time alcohol may be identified in breast milk increases as a mother’s alcohol use increases.
For instance, alcohol from one drink may be identified in the mother’s milk for around 2-3hrs, alcohol from two drinks for approximately 4-5hrs, and alcohol from three drinks for approximately 6-8hrs, and the list goes on.
However, the quantity of alcohol consumed, how quickly the beer is ingested, whether it is ingested with meals, the mother’s weight, and how quickly the beer is broken down in a mother’s body will all influence blood alcohol content and the duration of time beer (alcohol) can be identified in the breast milk after drinking.
Excessive alcohol intake might have an effect on your baby’s sleep habits as well as his or her growth and development.
You may discover that your baby does not sleep as well after you have had alcohol and breastfed. (You may find that they sleep more, but not for as long.) This is mostly due to decreased REM sleep and greater startling/arousal.
There may potentially be long-term consequences for the baby’s development, although further study is needed to determine this.
Another thing to consider is that your infant may detect a change in the flavor of the breast milk as a result of the alcohol and become less interested in swallowing it.
Remember that although consuming one normal glass of alcohol per day is not dangerous to newborns (particularly if you wait for 2hrs before pumping/feeding), larger amounts of drinking might interfere with letdown.
This means you could yield less milk, providing you with an angry and hungry baby, and trust me, no mother wants that – all the screaming, gawking, shouting, and violent tantrums in which they can even hurt themselves and even you in the process.
Drinking Beer While Breastfeeding: Benefits and risks associated with it – Is it safe for the baby?
According to at least one 2017 research, if you maintain a well-established milk supply and consume alcohol in moderation, your child should have no detrimental consequences during the 1st year of life.
However, it is vital to highlight that there could be long-term repercussions, notably from increased alcohol exposure in breast milk.
According to a 2018 research, six and seven-year-old children who had ingested breast milk with booze as newborns performed worse on reasoning tests than some other kids their age who hadn’t been subjected to alcohol in breast milk as babies.
More study in this area is required. So, what is risk-free? Drinking in moderation (one normal glass of wine) while nursing is probably safe, but additional study is required.
Drinking excessively while nursing may have some implications for the infant, although more research is needed in this area as well.
The major worry about consuming alcohol is the way it will affect newborns. Again, modest quantities of beer should not be an issue, particularly if you breastfeed your infant after roughly two hours.
However, if you consume more than that, your baby may be in danger. Like any other alcoholic drink, exposing a newborn to beer through breastfeeding above modest consumption (up to 1 drink per day) may pose hazards such as affecting the infant’s growth and development, sleep patterns, as well as startling, and decreased milk intake, weight gain, increased crying, and arousal, ” Dr. Madden explains.
Another issue to consider is that alcohol, particularly in big quantities, may affect the milk expulsion reflex (the mechanism or system that allows your breast milk to be expelled from your breasts).
If this is hampered, your newborn may not receive sufficient milk. “On the most fundamental level, milk supply is correlated to demand and supply, so the less that baby takes, the less the mom makes,” Parks adds.
According to Parks, however, consuming one alcoholic beverage is unlikely to have long-term impacts on your milk expulsion reflex.
Should I then pump and dump? – Can expressing/pumping&dumping breast milk after drinking lower the amount of alcohol in the mother’s milk?
No. The amount of alcohol in a mother’s milk is basically the same as that of the level of alcohol in a mother’s bloodstream.
Releasing or expressing milk after consuming alcohol and afterward discarding it (“pumping and dumping”) does not lower the quantity of alcohol in the mother’s milk faster.
As the mother’s blood alcohol level lowers, so does the amount of alcohol (beer) in her breast milk. To alleviate physical pain or to stick to her milk production schedule, a woman may opt to release or pump breast milk after ingesting alcohol.
If a woman wishes to release or pump breast milk within 2 hours (per drink) after ingesting alcohol, the expressed milk may be discarded.
To decrease her newborn’s exposure to alcohol, a woman who has drunk more than a modest quantity of alcohol may opt to wait for 2hrs (per drink) before breastfeeding her kid or give her infant milk that was previously produced when she hasn’t been drinking.
Breast milk contains alcohol (beer) as long as the mother’s bloodstream contains alcohol.
If you just drink beer either once or twice a week, there’s probably no necessity to pump and dump.
However, you should take additional precautions to restrict the quantity of alcohol passed to the infant via your breast milk, such as delaying several hours after consuming beer before breastfeeding or pumping.
Pumping and dumping do not eliminate beer from your bloodstream, thus pumping and dumping will not reduce the quantity of alcohol (beer) in your milk.
Pumping and unloading should be done primarily for comfort, not to attempt to digest alcohol faster.
Consider feeding or pumping your kid soon before drinking to enhance your chances of having at least 2hrs before having to breastfeed again.
Precautions for safety – Other things to consider in terms of safety
You should be allowed to have a drink now and again, but it’s critical that you do so securely. Before consuming alcohol while nursing, you should consult with your physician.
If you’re dealing with a physiologically delicate infant or a preterm baby, you may need to take additional care.
Here are some guidelines for safely drinking beer while nursing;
- Consume alcohol (beer) in moderation
The one and the only way to consume alcohol safely while nursing is in moderation. The conventional guideline is that drinking approximately one alcoholic liquor is safe. If you drink more than just that, it is recommended that you stop nursing.
Typically, this means delaying until you’re sober, which signals that your blood alcohol level is low enough that it will not alter your milk.
“Everyone’s tolerance for alcohol will vary,” Parks adds. “Generally speaking, if you’re okay to drive, you’re fine to feed your baby.”
- Breastfeeding should be postponed.
If you choose to have a drink with dinner or go out with some friends, wait 2 hours before breastfeeding again to allow the bulk of the alcohol to leave your system.
You may nurse your infant just before drinking your beer, then continue nursing two hours later.
You may be asking whether “pump and dump” ever makes sense. According to Dr. Madden, this is seldom required. “Unless the mother is really drunk,” she continues, “it’s not necessary to pump and dump.”
According to the AAP, pumping your milk would not lower the level of booze in your milk quicker.
However, if you are required to wait several hours before breastfeeding to allow the alcohol to exit your system, you may need to pump to minimize engorgement.
- Have somebody available to assist you with your baby’s care.
Whether you’re nursing or not, being inebriated might make it challenging to properly care for your child. “A parent should consider if they can securely care for their child,” Dr. Madden advises.
She recommends that you arrange for an alternate caretaker before engaging in any type of drinking. This is particularly critical, according to the AAP, if you get excessively inebriated.
Here are a few more things to think about:
- You should not breastfeed if you are inebriated until you are sober.
- Based on the amount you want to consume; you may also have to arrange for proper child care for your infant (as well as other children of yours.)
- Consider conserving some additional breast milk in case your infant wants to feed before the alcohol has had a chance to break down in your body system and milk.
- There is some indication that booze metabolizes faster while you are nursing, so you may experience the effects of that drink sooner. Eating anything before drinking may help.
- Breast milk alcohol levels are comparable to blood alcohol content. Alcohol levels in breast milk are normally greatest 30-60 minutes after consuming (though eating a meal can delay this peak). If at all possible, avoid pumping or nursing at this period.
- Breastfeeding should be delayed for at least 2 hours after ingesting a 12-ounce beer. If you have over one beer, you must wait an extra two hours for each successive drink.
Because a newborn’s liver is young, any booze in breast milk will have the greatest impact, since infants of all ages process alcohol more slowly than adults, and the alcohol’s effects on a baby’s system often persist longer.
The Final Verdict
When lactating women want to drink alcoholic beverages, they should be counseled to limit their babies’ exposure to alcohol. A person may be encouraged to breastfeed or express milk soon before consuming alcohol.
During breastfeeding, the number of alcoholic drinks consumed should preferably be restricted to one per day or fewer, and heavy drinking should really be avoided.
Lactating women should be aware that the AAP’s recommendations for good newborn sleep urge avoiding alcohol usage due to child safety issues.
Alcohol intake by parents is linked to an increased incidence of sudden infant death syndrome. This danger is especially great when an alcoholic parent occupies a bedroom with a newborn.
Nursing when intoxicated may make this risk worse. Although the absolute amount of alcohol passed to a newborn via milk is tiny and may be deemed minimal when compared to relative adult dosages, parents should be informed about the short-term effects of alcohol on a baby exposed to human milk.
They should also be advised that limited evidence suggests a probable relationship.
Alternatively, a lactating mother should wait at least 2 to 3 hours after a single drink before promptly giving her infant milk.
If the infant is hungry before that time, already expressed milk may be given to him. Although there is no known safe level of alcohol exposure for a newborn, occasional modest (1 drink or less) mother alcohol usage during nursing has not been shown to damage babies and should not accelerate weaning.
Some substances, medications, and drinks should be avoided when nursing, but beer isn’t one of them. It’s typically OK to crack open a cool beer and share it with a buddy or two.
Still, it’s critical that you restrict your beer consumption to one drink at a time. It’s also a good idea to wait around two hours before nursing again.
Because every baby and parent is unique, you should speak with your physician before drinking beer while nursing your child.
All right, guys, that is it for now for drinking beer while breastfeeding: benefits and risks associated with it. I hope Bornfertilelady answered any questions you had concerning drinking beer while breastfeeding: benefits and risks associated with it.
And always remember that Bornfertilelady is one of the best health sites out there that genuinely care for expecting parents, and you can find valuable information on all things about prenatal care on this site.
It is founded by a pregnancy expert and a mother of two, and the platform offers resources on prenatal nutrition, including information on the best pregnancy vitamins and insightful tips on how to have a healthier lifestyle as a mom (pregnant and delivered).
