Skip to main content
Canadian Family Physician logoLink to Canadian Family Physician
. 2002 Jan;48:39–41.

Drinking alcohol while breastfeeding. Will it harm my baby?

Gideon Koren 1
PMCID: PMC2213923  PMID: 11852608

Abstract

QUESTION: 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. ANSWER: 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.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (105.5 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Anderson P. O. Alcohol and breastfeeding. J Hum Lact. 1995 Dec;11(4):321–323. doi: 10.1177/089033449501100421. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cobo E. Effect of different doses of ethanol on the milk-ejecting reflex in lactating women. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1973 Mar 15;115(6):817–821. doi: 10.1016/0002-9378(73)90526-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Coiro V., Alboni A., Gramellini D., Cigarini C., Bianconi L., Pignatti D., Volpi R., Chiodera P. Inhibition by ethanol of the oxytocin response to breast stimulation in normal women and the role of endogenous opioids. Acta Endocrinol (Copenh) 1992 Mar;126(3):213–216. doi: 10.1530/acta.0.1260213. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Ho E., Collantes A., Kapur B. M., Moretti M., Koren G. Alcohol and breast feeding: calculation of time to zero level in milk. Biol Neonate. 2001;80(3):219–222. doi: 10.1159/000047146. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Lamminpä A. Alcohol intoxication in childhood and adolescence. Alcohol Alcohol. 1995 Jan;30(1):5–12. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lawton M. E. Alcohol in breast milk. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol. 1985 Feb;25(1):71–73. doi: 10.1111/j.1479-828x.1985.tb00609.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Little R. E., Anderson K. W., Ervin C. H., Worthington-Roberts B., Clarren S. K. Maternal alcohol use during breast-feeding and infant mental and motor development at one year. N Engl J Med. 1989 Aug 17;321(7):425–430. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198908173210703. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Mennella J. A., Beauchamp G. K. The transfer of alcohol to human milk. Effects on flavor and the infant's behavior. N Engl J Med. 1991 Oct 3;325(14):981–985. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199110033251401. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Mennella J. A., Gerrish C. J. Effects of exposure to alcohol in mother's milk on infant sleep. Pediatrics. 1998 May;101(5):E2–E2. doi: 10.1542/peds.101.5.e2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Mennella J. A. Infants' suckling responses to the flavor of alcohol in mothers' milk. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1997 Jun;21(4):581–585. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Canadian Family Physician are provided here courtesy of College of Family Physicians of Canada

RESOURCES