Ask Anne…
CAFFEINE – Yes? No?
Question:
What
do you think about caffeine (cup of coffee or a coke) getting into milk?
If it does affect the baby, how long after my drinking it would that be?
(My baby nurses frequently and is 9 weeks old.)
Answer:
I think that you can have a cup of coffee of a coke without thinking twice about it. Studies have shown that very little of the caffeine ingested by nursing mothers appeared in their milk, and the tiny bit that did appear didn’t have any apparent effect on the baby’s heart rate or sleep patterns.
Caffeine
is approved by the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) for use by nursing
mothers. The average cup of coffee contains 100-150 mg of caffeine, so
if you drink 5 cups of coffee or less each day, your baby will get less
than 3 mg per kg a day. The caffeine peaks in your milk about an hour
after you drink the beverage, but the levels are so low that they rarely
cause any
problems. Premature babies and newborns eliminate caffeine and other substances
from their milk more slowly than older babies, so mothers of tiny babies
may want to limit their intake accordingly. Since your baby is nine weeks
old and healthy, then I would advise you to enjoy your soda and coffee
and cross caffeine off your list of things to worry about.
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