Caffeine & breastfeeding?

P

premama

Registered User
Hi,

Is it ok to drink coffee while breastfeeding? Is decaf ok? Would it have any adverse effect on the baby?

Thanks!
 
Hi,

I breastfed my son until he was 9 1/2 months old and I intend to breastfeed my daughter whose three months old for as long as she wants. One of small joys for me when I was a first time parent was the frequent breastfeeding stops at starbucks for me when my son was very little. (It would still be a pleasure were it not for my little girl not having such an affinity with her ergo carrier and preferring to nurse whilst on the move!) So I guess thats *my* answer to your question. I'm also Sri Lankan and my husband is Irish so 3-4 cups of tea a day is very much the norm in our household.

The experts also don't seem to have too much of a problem with it. I like this mum-friendly resource: Caffeine and breastfeeding

'If you were to drink up to 750mg a day of caffeinated drinks (about five or six cups of coffee) it would hardly affect your baby. In tests, the amount of caffeine in the saliva or urine of breastfed babies whose mums drank this amount was either extremely low, or undetectable (Nehlig and Debry 1994, Wills 2000). '

As the article also suggests, its down to your baby and how (s)he reacts too. Both my kids didn't seem bothered either way - although wine did help with their sleep. Kidding!
 
Couldn't have survived without it....

From the beginning, I probably had 1-2 cappuccino's a day, just made sure none were later than early afternoon (just in case it effected bedtime - not that I ever think that it did).
 
Just looking through the grammatical errors in my post makes me think its either time for more tea or bed! :P
 
Very little caffeine passes into a mothers' milk. The mother needs to drink more than five cups of coffee per day before her breastfeeding baby would be affected.

I've attached a page from Close to the Heart, LLL-Asia's newsletter - free with membership!
http://www.lllhk.org/Membership Matters.pdf

Back issues can be viewed at LLL-HK Publications

Best wishes,
SARAH
 

Attachments

Can't survive without tea, especially right after I wake up in the morning. Drank 1- 2 cups of tea when I was pregnant/ bfeeding our daughter and even now when I am pregnant with our son I drink 2 cups of tea and occassional latte. Little amount of caffeine does no harm to a baby as extensive research has proved yet some people freak out at the very idea, it is way over exaggerated in my opinion.
 
I stopped drinking coffee, coke and tea when I found out I was pregnant, instead eventually opted for decaf coffee or tea which I steeped myself weak. I only drank decaf when I was breastfeeding too, at least until my son went down to 1-2 feeds a day and my coffee consumption was outside of his schedule. Now I looooove my coffee.
If I get pregnant again, I plan to stop drinking coffee again as well. Despite this study and that study, caffeine is, in fact, a drug. I like to give my unborn child the best chance possible. That`s just me.
 
Me too, cant survive without it. Three cheers for the a caffein hit whilst being a mum! Hip hip - hooray!
 
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