Breast Feeding and Alcohol – How Harmful It Is for the Baby
Any type of drugs and/or drug abuse is bad for the baby. Those (women) who are habitual drinkers should abstain for sometime when they find out that they are pregnant. Pregnancy and drugs abuse do not gel well. Be careful that you understand the implications when you consume alcohol and other drugs and are pregnant or breast feeding your baby.
Breast Feeding and Alcohol Is a Bad Combination
Women, who are pregnant or are breastfeeding babies, should not even touch a cigarette and/or alcoholic drinks. The former (cigarette smoke) is very harmful for the both mother and child even if it is passive smoking. For men, smoking was found to cause short and long-term impotence.
Studies found clear evidence of alcohol traces in milk even one day after the mother consumed alcohol. The baby reacts to this substance as well - you must have noticed that babies of mothers who drink heavily are both over-excited and restless all the time, or are too quiet. By the way, women too feel about the same.
The Good News About the Breast Feeding and Alcohol
Though it was found that alcohol is readily passed into the milk of a lactating mother, the good news would have that the effects wear off pretty fast. Hence, if you have a heavy dose say, at 12.30-2.00 am, dumping the milk at about 7 am would ensure that the next feed at 10 am would be free of any type of alcohol traces.
Doctors all over the world are advising moderation to all women who love to consume alcohol. Beverages such as beer and wine can be managed pretty well both by the mother and the infant. It is best to start drinking after breastfeeding the baby his/her milk to ensure that breast feeding and alcohol do not mix.
Rather than go for binges, one should practice moderation with alcohol (and all other possible spheres of life) – preferably not more than two large pegs and/or their equivalent. This would ensure that the infant(s) has the time to wait till the body clears the alcohol from the blood.
Some doctors, however, do not agree to this system. They advise total and immediate abstinence as the correct solution to breast feeding and alcohol problems that could affect the infants irreversibly. In their opinion breast feeding and alcohol cannot be mentioned in one breath – you either breastfeed or you drink alcohol. Choose!