I want to remind Lactnetters that Tom Hale had a brief, clear comment on
alcohol consumption and breastfeeding last year around the holiday season.
It can still be accessed at

 http://www.ibreastfeeding.com/newsletter3/html/notes_from_dr__hale.html

> Alcohol and the Holidays:                                                    
>                 
> 
> Inquiries concerning the ingestion of alcohol by breastfeeding mothers is
> common during the holiday season. Ethanol has a brief but highly varied
> half-life that largely depends on the individual¹s weight, age, sex, and liver
> function. For breastfeeding mothers, my suggestions are as follows should they
> decide to drink alcohol:
> 
> *    Mothers with premature infants should not ingest alcohol.  If they decide
> to do so, they should wait until it is completely metabolized before pumping
> or breastfeeding their infant.
> *    Mothers with full-term or older infants should wait at least 1-2 hours
> for each drink they ingest before pumping or breastfeeding. This would, of
> course, vary according to the amount of alcohol present in the drinks.
> *    Ethanol enters and exits milk as a function of the mother¹s blood level.
> As the mother metabolizes alcohol, milk levels will decrease proportionally. 
> Mothers should wait until they are sober to breastfeed.
> *    Present studies suggest that the ³rate of ingestion of milk by the
> infant² is suppressed by ethanol. It is not known if this is due to reduced
> milk production or if the infant simply does not like the taste of alcohol and
> refuses to ingest the milk.
> *    Anecdotal suggestions that beer or alcohol increases milk production, or
> conversely decreases milk production, are probably incorrect.  At this point,
> we simply do not know for sure.


It is an additional resource we can share with parents and others who
inquire about drinking over the holidays.

Anne Altshuler

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