Wine While Breastfeeding?

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This is a popular question in the mommy community. We recently posted the question "A glass of wine while breastfeeding. Yes or No?" on our Facebook page. We had fans that came down on either side.

On the side of YES, here are a couple of comments:

"Sure. We deserve it and it's all about moderation and timing." - Kara W.

"Yes! It's perfectly fine. That being said I still waited until my little guy was 3months old. And that was just to make me feel better. But my doctor in the hospital said it was fine." - Andrea K.

And on the NO side, here are a couple:

"well no, but not because I'm an anal nazi.. rather because I prefer to ENJOY my class of wine in the silence of my solitude (or with my DH and a HUGE platter of gourmet cheese!!!!! lol) but I must say once I had a beer while nursing and oh! my goodness I've never produced so much milk in my whole life I thought I was going to drown my baby and flood the apartment (TMI? sorry!)" - Kari M.

"Personally no. But I'm over cautious. If I were to I'd have to pump and dump to feel okay about it." - Ariel C.

And here are the jokesters' comments:

For you or the baby? - Solomon O.

"A glass of wine WHILE breastfeeding? That's coordination!" - Jennifer H.

If our response represented a straw poll, I would say most moms are OK with a glass of wine, but no more.

Like our Facebook fans, medical experts are divided as well. While most recommend avoiding alcohol completely while nursing, many recognize that moms may indulge. One of the most common pieces of advice from the experts is that if you do have a glass of wine or beer, drink it just after you nurse rather than just before.

Another thing we noted amongst response on our page is that several women referred the traditional wisdom that alcohol helps wine breast milk produced. After doing some research, it may seem that this old wives' tale is not true. Researcher Julie Mennella of Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center put this tale to test in 2005 and it seems it fell short. (You can find more about this test here). Now one thing to note is that they used spiked orange juice and not wine.

If you didn't have a chance to join our conversation on Facebook, feel free to let us know your thoughts on wine while breastfeeding in the comments section below.