Need some help for a fellow 1st time bf'ing mom

[Aka mommy]

I have a friend who i've made in the last 6 months. I can't say that my judgment of her is 100% right, so please bare with me as i hate judgement calls on other women.

But this friend, upon realizing that i extended breastfed my children, has come to me with questions. And i've honestly never researched them and don't know the right answers for her.

She loves to drink, but she didn't while pregnant. She's drinking now and her 2 month old is still exculsively breastfeeding. I've tried to research, because my initial response is "put the baby on formula when you're drinking, if you can't stop after 1-2 drinks". But if i know anything of her from what she's shared with me the last 6 months of our friendship, she may be a functional alcoholic. She doesn't drink while pregnant, but she's been drinking every night since about 4 weeks after the baby is born. She's not asking me for help, other then to let her know if i know how much alcohol consumption is safe for her to breastfeed. I'm old school, none is safe. But i didn't know where to search and what to tell her. I told her i'd look into my books and research to see what i could find. But so far, all the stuff i researched 7 years ago when my first dd was born, may be outdated. Any info? Tips.

And lastly, if constant alcohol consumption is unsafe for her child while breastfeeding. . . how do i say that? Specific studies and research would be AWESOME because she asked for that and i can just type it out and give her the answers she asked for.

Thanks!

[ewe+lamb]

Well, it's sort of the same as when drinking and driving - or that's my estimate, however, my concern is her ability to care for her baby when under the influence of alcohol, more so if she's carrying around a little one and stumbles and falls, falls asleep with the little one, if she needs help or care she can't just jump in the care and drive to the hospital or to someone. So I guess i'd mention those things to her, it really just doesn't seem like a good idea, I mean I have the odd drink now and then but everything is within limits and sensibilities of our modern day life and what we know to be healthy.

As for approaching the topic with her, I'm not sure how I would do it, I know it's come up in LLL meetings - would you be prepared to go to one together and bring it up, or mention it to the leader and as her to bring it up without mentioning you - I don't know, I guess that would be how I would try and go about it. If she has a problem then she actually needs to admit it before she'll go and get any help - difficult one though - hugs - it's good to know that others care

[OkiMom]

http://www.kellymom.com/health/lifestyle/alcohol.html <-- Here is what Kelly mom says about the topic.
Here is what Ive found on LLL http://www.llli.org/FAQ/alcohol.html
I have been asked similar questions about drinking and breastfeeding by pregnant women I know so I decided to ask a few friends what they did. When I asked a few people I know who drank and nursed only drank small amount (like a glass of champagne New Years eve) and didn't nurse for a couple of hours afterward. I know that they have test strips on Amazon that you can use to test to see if there is any alcohol left in your breast milk but I don't know how accurate or whats considered "safe".
My opinion is alcohol and babies don't mix. I don't' drink at all however i don't fault someone for have a celebratory toast or a glass of wine with dinner. However, drinking till you get drunk I don't think mixes with young babies.

[annettemarie]

Moving out to the general breastfeeding forum.

[AislinCarys]

Well, being drunk and in charge of a baby is never a good idea, but it applies to mothers who formula feed as well as breastfeed.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...609.x/abstract

Alcohol and Breast Feeding: Calculation of Time to Zero Level in Milk
Elaine Ho, Alexis Collantes, Bhushan M. Kapur, Myla Moretti, Gideon Koren:

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB....asp?Doi=47146

Minimizing Alcohol Exposure of the Breastfeeding Infant
Pat Schulte, RN, IBCLC:

http://jhl.sagepub.com/content/11/4/317.abstract

The transfer of alcohol to human milk. Effects on flavor and the infant's behavior:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1886634

Alcohol and Breastfeeding:

http://www.obfocus.com/nutrition/alcoholinmilk.htm

(Article, with links)

Alcohol’s Effect on Lactation:

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publicatio...-3/230-234.htm

I haven't got the time to re-read these articles/studies right now, but I do know that several mention the percentage of alcohol in breastmilk being similar to that of the mother's blood, which means that there ca be more alcohol in baby apple juice than in the breastmilk (even when the mother is fall-over drunk). One of these studies above used buttermilk as alcoholic beverage (for the mums), and had results with that.

Point is, unless baby is underweight/not growing well/has feeding issues, a drink here and there, maybe even every day, or a few more drinks at a party, is unlikely to hurt the average baby. As a mother of a baby who was underweight, I would have chosen not to drink when she was little (I really had no interest so it never came up back then), just like I avoided peppermint, sage etc., and ate oatmeal, took fenugreek etc. Neither I nor DH wanted to drink due to co-sleeping either. Nowadays. however, I'll drink whenever I feel like it, despite my DD feeding 15-20 times a day and us still co-sleeping. But she is no longer small for her age, she's growing well etc. None of us would get drunk and co-sleep, though. With a tiny, any drink and co-sleeping would have worried me, but not now.

[Aka mommy]

Originally Posted by OkiMom

http://www.kellymom.com/health/lifestyle/alcohol.html <-- Here is what Kelly mom says about the topic.
Here is what Ive found on LLL http://www.llli.org/FAQ/alcohol.html
I have been asked similar questions about drinking and breastfeeding by pregnant women I know so I decided to ask a few friends what they did. When I asked a few people I know who drank and nursed only drank small amount (like a glass of champagne New Years eve) and didn't nurse for a couple of hours afterward. I know that they have test strips on Amazon that you can use to test to see if there is any alcohol left in your breast milk but I don't know how accurate or whats considered "safe".
My opinion is alcohol and babies don't mix. I don't' drink at all however i don't fault someone for have a celebratory toast or a glass of wine with dinner. However, drinking till you get drunk I don't think mixes with young babies.

Originally Posted by AislinCarys

Well, being drunk and in charge of a baby is never a good idea, but it applies to mothers who formula feed as well as breastfeed.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...609.x/abstract

Alcohol and Breast Feeding: Calculation of Time to Zero Level in Milk
Elaine Ho, Alexis Collantes, Bhushan M. Kapur, Myla Moretti, Gideon Koren:

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB....asp?Doi=47146

Minimizing Alcohol Exposure of the Breastfeeding Infant
Pat Schulte, RN, IBCLC:

http://jhl.sagepub.com/content/11/4/317.abstract

The transfer of alcohol to human milk. Effects on flavor and the infant's behavior:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1886634

Alcohol and Breastfeeding:

http://www.obfocus.com/nutrition/alcoholinmilk.htm

(Article, with links)

Alcohol’s Effect on Lactation:

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publicatio...-3/230-234.htm

I haven't got the time to re-read these articles/studies right now, but I do know that several mention the percentage of alcohol in breastmilk being similar to that of the mother's blood, which means that there ca be more alcohol in baby apple juice than in the breastmilk (even when the mother is fall-over drunk). One of these studies above used buttermilk as alcoholic beverage (for the mums), and had results with that.

Point is, unless baby is underweight/not growing well/has feeding issues, a drink here and there, maybe even every day, or a few more drinks at a party, is unlikely to hurt the average baby. As a mother of a baby who was underweight, I would have chosen not to drink when she was little (I really had no interest so it never came up back then), just like I avoided peppermint, sage etc., and ate oatmeal, took fenugreek etc. Neither I nor DH wanted to drink due to co-sleeping either. Nowadays. however, I'll drink whenever I feel like it, despite my DD feeding 15-20 times a day and us still co-sleeping. But she is no longer small for her age, she's growing well etc. None of us would get drunk and co-sleep, though. With a tiny, any drink and co-sleeping would have worried me, but not now.

Thank you for all the links, I will email them to her and let her read them. I appreciate it ladies.

Oh and they don't co-sleep and baby sleeps in 5 hour stretches (i'm so jealous lol). And it sounds to me as if she has a glass of wine to 2 a night. These articles seem to talk about that so I can give her the info she asked about! Thank you