Watching reality TV is one of my guilty pleasures, and I must say I watch far too much of it, if I’m being honest, which I really try to do most of the time. Anyway, out of the shows I watch The Real Housewives series are tops on my list and now a fun spin-off of one of my fav’s from The Real Housewives of New York has her own show. Bethenny Frankel is the star of Bethenny Getting Married? and she is super sarcastic, like me (‘cept I’m not mean, I don’t think,) has a new baby, like me, and is breastfeeding, like me, so it’s pretty fun to watch even though we do have some major differences as well.
As I (and secretly Daddy B) was watching this past week’s episode I noticed the baby nurse giving Bethenny a Blue Moon, no this is not an advertisement but I do really enjoy a good Blue Moon, I did a double take and quickly said to Daddy B, who was blogging on his own blog at the time, “You HAVE to look that up, right now!” I was intrigued! I know many people have found it to be controversial and here are my thoughts on the matter considering that it is World Breastfeeding Week today through the 7th! So, Daddy B looked it up and initially we found this article on BabyCenter.com that basically says beer contains some ingredients that may increase a mom’s milk supply, but the alcohol can inhibit milk prodution. So, if you are going to drink in conjunction with nursing do it in very small doses and only on occasion. So in regards to the Bethenny Beer Scandal of 2010 there’s no reason to get huffy over a nursing mother choosing to have a small drink.
Though there are ways to do so safely like drinking the beverage while you are nursing so the alcohol levels are sure to drop (so long as you only have a small dose,) by the time you are ready for the next feeding, and if you really want to be safe you can check out Milkscreen, a product designed to test the alcohol content of breastmilk. Some mothers prefer to pump and dump, thinking this will rid their milk of alcohol. This in fact is a little known fact that alcohol reacts the same way in breastmilk that it does in the bloodstream and no amount of pumping and dumping, coffee, drinking water will eliminate the alcohol from your system but time. So, if the reason for your drinking is to increase your supply then pumping and dumping milk that will be free of alcohol in just a hour or two is pointless.
If you really want to increase your supply there are a ton of alternatives than a glass of beer. A few ways are pretty easy lifestyle changes, make sure you’re getting enough sleep, stay hydrated, eat well, or pump to increase the demand and hopefully in turn increasing the supply. Then, there are things you can ingest like non-alcoholic beers (even though they taste gross) contain the same milk producing ingredients as alcoholic beer. Also in the category are oatmeal, Fenugreek, and prescription medications.
So when it comes to breastfeeding and any alcohol know your limitations and have a back-up plan in case of an alcohol overload.
Have you or someone you know drank alcohol while breastfeeding?
I’ve been known to have a glass of wine or beer while breastfeeding, though never for the purpose of boosting my milk supply. I like a drink with dinner sometimes, that’s all. In small amounts, there’s no reason to worry about harming the baby. I would caution that anyone who lacks self-control in these things and is going for a “buzz” should stay far away from alcohol. I’d hate to see anyone giving their baby a buzz, too! Building milk supply is a fair reason to drink a little bit of beer, I guess, but there are better ways, especially if you don’t like beer.
I love Carlsberg non-alcoholic beer!! It got me through pregnancy and breastfeeding, although I would occasionally have half a glass of wine with dinner while breastfeeding. I don’t know if it’s available in the US, but if you can find it, it’s far better than any of non-alcoholic beers I’ve tried.
Unfortunately from their website it looks like they are only available in Canada….anyone else have good suggestions on non-alcoholic beer?
I also heard about this and decided to do some research of my own using our school’s research database. There’s really nothing to support the beer + breastfeeding theory. Some studies also found that non-alcoholic beers are just as effective!