Tell me if I'm wrong -- but it's important to keep a sense of proportion about alcohol. Ethanol is a small molecule and passes uninhibited through the placenta, so as far as ethanol's concerned, mom and baby have a joint circulatory system and the baby in utero is getting the same dose mom is -- but also benefits from her liver's ability to clear it. With breastfeeding, baby is no longer being pickled in the same brine as mom, but is having a meal of a volume that's a small fraction of his body weight and even blood volume. What might the dilution factor be, even if milk ethanol percent is the same as mom's blood ethanol percent and we assume that the ethanol is absorbed instantly from milk? I found no data on infant blood ethanol levels in my 2002 edition of Hale's Medications and Mother's Milk. Did the AAP or the Dutch Health Council have new data about how high a breastfed baby's blood alcohol level gets or how long it takes to decrease after an alcohol-laced feeding? This is one of those where it would take moms volunteering their babies for a lot of discomfort. They sure would have to tolerate a lot of blood draws (would they be allowed to breastfeed during them -- as recommended in some recent posts?), because I doubt the blood alcohol levels we're talking about can be effectively tracked with a breathalyzer... Ruth Piatak, LLLL Plano, TX *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html