Drinking alcohol while breastfeeding. Will it harm my baby?
OBJECTIVE
I recently delivered a healthy, full-term baby and am now breastfeeding exclusively. I abstained from drinking alcohol during my entire pregnancy and am wondering if drinking alcohol now would harm my nursing baby.


CONCLUSIONS
Nursing mothers who choose to drink alcohol during the postpartum period should carefully plan a breastfeeding schedule by storing milk before drinking and waiting for complete elimination of alcohol from their breast milk after drinking. Motherisk has created an algorithm to estimate how long it takes to eliminate alcohol from breast milk.
Koren
Gideon
G
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ont.
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007229:Infant Welfare; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D013997:Time Factors
D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol