drinking and breastfeeding
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Anonymous
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Can someone break down how to properly drink when breastfeeding.
For example, I am going on vacation and I would like to have a beer/Margarita. When should I pump and dump? How long after drinking am I clear to nurse baby? |
Anonymous
| Drink while you are nursing, or just before/after. The alcohol won't have time to get into that milk. |
Anonymous
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You don’t have to pump and dump. But you can’t drink as much as before breast-feeding. If you get drunk you can’t nurse and you’ll need to bottle feed and wait till your blood alcohol level comes down. Pump (and dump) only to relieve pressure don’t bother pumping if it’s not absolutely necessary.
It’s best if you have a margarita while you’re nursing or right after you should have time for it to clear your bloodstream before the next feed. |
Anonymous
| If you’re saying you’re only going to have one beer/margarita per day, or maybe one with lunch and one with dinner, I wouldn’t worry about it. I think you can look this up on kellymom. |
Anonymous
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Agree with all of the above! The general rule seems to be: if you can drive, you can breastfeed or pump and save the milk.
I personally enjoy drinking while nursing. I always get one or two evil looks from people 
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Anonymous
| They make strips to dip into your breast milk to test it. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| I would feel so bad drinking while nursing, plus so many looks would hurt me |
Anonymous
| My strategy was drink one, breast feed, drink another...wait 2 hours, breast feed again. I doubt one drink with food i worth worrying about. |
Anonymous
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My OB said if you're safe to drive, you're safe to nurse. The alcohol in your milk is the same concentration as your BAC, and it burns off at the same rate (about one drink per hour). The safest way is to drink either while nursing or right afterwards, which gives the most time for the alcohol to dissipate.
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Anonymous
| Yes, if it's just one drink, I'd just have it while nursing or right after. How frequently does the baby nurse? If every 3 hours or longer, I wouldn't think twice about it. You don't need to pump and dump--it doesn't reduce the alcohol content in your milk, so the only reason to go that route is if you're drinking enough that you'll skip a nursing session or two (and feed pumped milk or formula instead). Then you pump and dump so you don't get engorged. Otherwise--no benefit to it. |