This is the article about Alcohol and Breastfeeding, Effects on baby, after how long, can I breastfeed again. we will be looking out for signs of alcohol in a breastfed baby, effects on the baby, and How long after drinking can I breastfeed again. This is the truth about alcohol and breastfeeding
Sober enough to drive, sober enough to nurse.
Breastfeeding gives nutrition to infants and helps to protect their babies from illness but when a mother consumes alcohol occasionally, the levels of alcohol in milk will be exactly the same as your blood alcohol level which means it does not concentrate in the milk unless you are so drunk, there will be no alcohol in your milk. Hence, the effects of alcohol on an infant is depending on the amount of alcohol a mother ingests.
If you have an addiction to alcohol, Please get help so that you can nurse the baby without putting her at risk.
Checkout Reflux in newborns? What is the cause and how to get rid of it?
Can a mother drink alcohol while breastfeeding?
Yes, a mother can drink alcohol while breastfeeding but there is a way to do so as long as they are timing their alcohol intake with regard to their breastfeeding.
Some mothers pump their milk after alcohol intake and discard the few drops as it does not quickly reduce the concentration of alcohol in the mother’s milk. Hence.
DON’T PUMP AND DUMP, Its Precious.
How long after drinking alcohol a mother can breastfeed their baby?
Elimination of alcohol in breast milk takes 2-3 hours but it depends on the weight of the mother. So for every standard drink, a mother needs to wait for two hours before she breastfeeds. So she needs to know when her baby is going to feed before drinking alcohol.
Some Crux about drinking during Breastfeeding
- Intake of alcohol should be moderate and occasional.
- Wait for 2 hours after consuming alcohol to breastfeed your infant.
- A mother should be more cautious when the baby is less than 3 months old.
- Intake of alcohol more than 1-2 glasses per day can be fatal for your baby.
If you really want to drink alcohol, Nurse or pump the milk 1 hour before drinking the alcohol, It will significantly reduce the subsequent alcohol content in the breastmilk – NCBI
What are the signs and effects of alcohol in breastfeeding a baby?
- Delayed in walking, sitting, and rolling. Difficulty in eating the food, speech delay, poor neck, and head control, and difficulty in crawling. These are the signs of altered motor skills in your baby.
- Excessive Intake of alcohol by the mother decreases the amount of milk in the breasts or altered the taste of milk and this will result in weakness in your baby. Some studies tell that intake of alcohol by mother decrease the ingestion of milk in babies is 20%.
- Your baby may feel drowsy all day(altered sleep pattern)
- Excessive consumption of alcohol by the mother affects the growth and development of a baby.
- It decreases cognitive skills like thinking, reading, learning, interpretation power, and memory.
- Low immune system.
- Nonverbal reasoning tasks got affected at the age of 6-7 years old.
Consumption of alcohol by the mother increases the chance of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (sudden unexplained death of a child during sleeping)
Checkout Reflux in newborns? What is the cause and how to get rid of it?
