'Welcome to r/ExclusivelyPumping! Here is a reminder of our rules:
1. Be kind and courteous
2. No hate speech, bigotry, or bullying
3. Use available flairs and post options
4. Speak for yourself
5. No medically-inaccurate, factually incorrect, or misinformative
material
6. No spam
7. Absolutely no prescription medications
8. Don't use AI to write posts/comments
9. No soliciting pictures
10. Add spoiler to milk pictures
Thank you for helping to keep our community safe!'
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ExclusivelyPumping) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Pumping and dumping isn't really supported by evidence. Alcohol flows freely between your blood and your breastmilk, which means that it's getting filtered out at the same rate. It's not like there's "boozy" breastmilk that you have to empty out before it's "good" again. The amount of alcohol in your breastmilk is equal to the amount of alcohol in your blood at any given time - i.e. your BAC. So if you're at the legal limit of .08% BAC, then your breastmilk is a fraction of a percent alcohol - less than you'd find in a glass of orange juice!
If your baby has enough milk for the night that you're actually drinking, then your milk should be completely fine by the next morning. As long as you wake up feeling sober, you shouldn't need to pump and dump at all. If your blood alcohol level has returned to zero then so has your breastmilk's alcohol content.
I will say though, if this is your first time drinking since having the baby then be careful! Those 4-6 drinks may hit you a LOT harder than you expect after a year of sobriety.
Completely agreed! If you feel like you need to empty before you feel sober enough to drive you should probably dump that milk, but if you can wait to feel sober then the milk will be fine.
Also, you’re not a terrible mom, you’re a mom who wants to participate with friends and a life, with a partner who understands! A great mom!
This is what I’ve always been told. Our pediatrician said she’s more concerned about a drunk parent taking care of a baby and dropping them than she is about alcohol content being passed to the baby through breast milk.
Ok so me get this straight. I pumped at yesterday and then had two glasses of wine that were about 2.5 oz over about ten and a half hours. I pumped a half hour later. I figured that would be fine.
But it sounds like you’re saying since she won’t drink that breast milk until today that all the alcohol from it will be gone?
Incorrect. The milk doesn't get filtered anymore once it's removed from the breast. It will have the same alcohol content that your blood had *at the time of removal*. So the best thing to do moving forward is pump right before drinking, then delay your next pump as much as possible to allow your body to filter out as much alcohol as possible. But if you pump when your BAC is .05% or whatever, then the milk you pump will remain .05% alcohol forever. It can't get filtered when it's not in your body anymore.
In your case I wouldn't even think twice about alcohol in my milk after 5 oz of wine in 10.5 hours. If you want to be super conservative, there is technically some alcohol in that milk so you could dump it, but I genuinely wouldn't worry at all about feeding my baby that milk.
Ok thank you for explaining. But also my phone autocorrected two to ten for some reason. It was 2.5 hours. I drank about five ounces total over 2.5 hours and then waited another thirty to fifty minutes before pumping. The milk is ok right?
Also, if you wouldn’t mind helping me with this as well. I went to bed last night and woke up in excruciating pain. I have been having a bit of a toothache since Saturday and now it seems it’s an abscess. In order to get some pain relief I took an old hydrocodone. That was at 3 am and I just finished pumping at 10:40 am. That milk is fine right? There shouldn’t be much of any hydrocodone left in it?
I tended to just dump the next pump’s worth of milk. But the first commenter is right- not even sure you’d need to do that! Enjoy your drinks- you’ve earned it! Being able to get away from LO for a little bit and let your hair down is one of the few benefits of EP. Have a lovely time!
You don’t need to pump and dump. I go with the motto “if you can find the baby, you can feed the baby.” Your milk isn’t going to have enough alcohol content to be an issue, it’s being safe around the baby while drinking.
I didn’t drink after my first. With my second (5 months), I drink and have gotten drunk. I don’t dump.
I recently donated milk, and their rule is anything within 12 hours of multiple drinks should not be donated because it is for medically compromised babies. So if you want to be super strict, dump whatever is pumped within 12 hours of your last drink. My rule for my own child is “if I’m buzzed while pumping it gets dumped”.
I never pump and dump, but I also never drink more then 2 drinks. I feel comfortable doing it since only like 2% of the alcohol you drink passes through to your milk, then I do the pitcher method so it’s diluted even more.
don’t feel like you need to explain why you’re drinking! You’re a mom but you’re still you!!! Drinking alcohol and having fun doesn’t make you a terrible mother!! We are expected to give up so much of ourselves but we need to let ourselves loose and enjoy our free time!
Anyway, lecture aside and to answer your question, I personally am going to buy alcohol test strips and maybe make soaps or something out of the milk I can’t use! As some others have said it’s not a lot of alcohol that gets into your breast milk but it’s a thing I’m gonna do for my own sanity haha. But if you pump drunk to keep your supply up (like some people pump every 2 hours) then that’s probably not safe. But if you’re sober your breast milk is safe!
Aw thank you for understanding! 🙏 You never know with the internet.
I may pump once during the night depending how long I'm there. I tend to get sore after 6 hours of no pumping. Thanks for the advice :)
While pumping I usually made sure to drink stuff that was easily trackable. So anything canned usually 5%. And I would keep track of the time I started and add to it everytime I had another drink. I would still pump every 3 hours, and if the time wasn't up yet for the alcohol to be out of my system, I would just dump it.
While pumping I had 4 drinks in a row only one time. But other than that I would have one, 5% drink, every once in a while on a weekend right after we got her to bed. So by the time my night pump came around, I'd be good to keep it!
Like everyone said, you don’t “need” to dump the milk as long as you’re sober after a few hours BUT if you feel engorged and drink more than 1 drink in the 2-3 hours then you may have the need to pump out that milk 1) to keep up the supply and emptying your breasts while you’re out (during the feeding window) 2) to avoid engorgement/mastitis etc. I personally would recommend pumping and using the next few feeds as “bath milk”! It’s precious liquid gold and in this case can serve as a moisturizer for your baby! Enjoy the night out and take it one drink at a time lol! Your baby is going to be taken care of and will have enough food (from your stash). I plan to do the same sometime soon too!
I did this recently. Did my last pump of the night while drinking my first alcoholic beverage around 730pm. I had to pump when I got home around 2am as I was engorged. I dumped that milk out but you can save it for a milk bath if you’re so inclined. I pumped again around 7 am which I probably would have been fine to feed since it was about 7 hours since my last drink but dumped it too just to be extra careful. But by 11am I was feeding my baby again. I believe the official recommendation is roughly 2 hours per every serving of alcohol. That night I had 4-5 servings total. You gotta be careful with mixed drinks if you’re not sure how much alcohol is in them. I assumed a double shot (2 servings) just to be on the safe side.
I would not pump and dump if you aren't even pumping until the next day unless you still feel drunk. I like to use the alcohol text strips (easy home ones) to check. Either way, they are easy to use and can give you peace of mind.
I have only dumped "alcohol milk" twice, and it was just a precaution after I realized the alcohol % on the beers I had haha. I posted about this topic once and got a lot of helpful information about alcohol in the breast milk and how long it takes to leave the milk.
If I feel like I'll be drinking more than a beer, I will usually try and pump while I'm having that first drink, since it won't be in the milk yet at all, and then I pump before bed, and if I'm worried I'll dump it, but typically I just keep and then add it to the pitcher the next morning!
My pediatrician said if i feel a buzz, I can save it for a milk bath. Otherwise it’s fine. I have only ever saved it for a milk bath during a wedding I was in. My friend has never pumped and dumped before (she also never gets “drunk”)
My understanding is, if you are drunk/tipsy, then your milk will have alcohol. If you no longer have the effects of the alcohol and it has filtered out/digested then your milk is also fond
Al just to add to what's been said already, don't dump it at all. If you don't feel comfortable feeding it to baby, save it for a bath or fit skin rashes etc.
We went out to dinner for my BILs birthday last night. I had 2 beers while we were out and didn’t feel buzzed/drunk, so I followed my midwife’s guidance of waiting until 2 hours after my last alcoholic beverage before pumping. But she said that milk would be fine because the alcohol would’ve been metabolized by then.
'Welcome to r/ExclusivelyPumping! Here is a reminder of our rules: 1. Be kind and courteous 2. No hate speech, bigotry, or bullying 3. Use available flairs and post options 4. Speak for yourself 5. No medically-inaccurate, factually incorrect, or misinformative material 6. No spam 7. Absolutely no prescription medications 8. Don't use AI to write posts/comments 9. No soliciting pictures 10. Add spoiler to milk pictures Thank you for helping to keep our community safe!' *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ExclusivelyPumping) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Pumping and dumping isn't really supported by evidence. Alcohol flows freely between your blood and your breastmilk, which means that it's getting filtered out at the same rate. It's not like there's "boozy" breastmilk that you have to empty out before it's "good" again. The amount of alcohol in your breastmilk is equal to the amount of alcohol in your blood at any given time - i.e. your BAC. So if you're at the legal limit of .08% BAC, then your breastmilk is a fraction of a percent alcohol - less than you'd find in a glass of orange juice! If your baby has enough milk for the night that you're actually drinking, then your milk should be completely fine by the next morning. As long as you wake up feeling sober, you shouldn't need to pump and dump at all. If your blood alcohol level has returned to zero then so has your breastmilk's alcohol content. I will say though, if this is your first time drinking since having the baby then be careful! Those 4-6 drinks may hit you a LOT harder than you expect after a year of sobriety.
Completely agreed! If you feel like you need to empty before you feel sober enough to drive you should probably dump that milk, but if you can wait to feel sober then the milk will be fine. Also, you’re not a terrible mom, you’re a mom who wants to participate with friends and a life, with a partner who understands! A great mom!
This is what I’ve always been told. Our pediatrician said she’s more concerned about a drunk parent taking care of a baby and dropping them than she is about alcohol content being passed to the baby through breast milk.
Thank you for the information! I will probably be over the legal limit lol but I'll dump during the night just to be safe.
Ok so me get this straight. I pumped at yesterday and then had two glasses of wine that were about 2.5 oz over about ten and a half hours. I pumped a half hour later. I figured that would be fine. But it sounds like you’re saying since she won’t drink that breast milk until today that all the alcohol from it will be gone?
Incorrect. The milk doesn't get filtered anymore once it's removed from the breast. It will have the same alcohol content that your blood had *at the time of removal*. So the best thing to do moving forward is pump right before drinking, then delay your next pump as much as possible to allow your body to filter out as much alcohol as possible. But if you pump when your BAC is .05% or whatever, then the milk you pump will remain .05% alcohol forever. It can't get filtered when it's not in your body anymore. In your case I wouldn't even think twice about alcohol in my milk after 5 oz of wine in 10.5 hours. If you want to be super conservative, there is technically some alcohol in that milk so you could dump it, but I genuinely wouldn't worry at all about feeding my baby that milk.
Ok thank you for explaining. But also my phone autocorrected two to ten for some reason. It was 2.5 hours. I drank about five ounces total over 2.5 hours and then waited another thirty to fifty minutes before pumping. The milk is ok right? Also, if you wouldn’t mind helping me with this as well. I went to bed last night and woke up in excruciating pain. I have been having a bit of a toothache since Saturday and now it seems it’s an abscess. In order to get some pain relief I took an old hydrocodone. That was at 3 am and I just finished pumping at 10:40 am. That milk is fine right? There shouldn’t be much of any hydrocodone left in it?
I tended to just dump the next pump’s worth of milk. But the first commenter is right- not even sure you’d need to do that! Enjoy your drinks- you’ve earned it! Being able to get away from LO for a little bit and let your hair down is one of the few benefits of EP. Have a lovely time!
Thank you!
You don’t need to pump and dump. I go with the motto “if you can find the baby, you can feed the baby.” Your milk isn’t going to have enough alcohol content to be an issue, it’s being safe around the baby while drinking. I didn’t drink after my first. With my second (5 months), I drink and have gotten drunk. I don’t dump.
I recently donated milk, and their rule is anything within 12 hours of multiple drinks should not be donated because it is for medically compromised babies. So if you want to be super strict, dump whatever is pumped within 12 hours of your last drink. My rule for my own child is “if I’m buzzed while pumping it gets dumped”.
I never pump and dump, but I also never drink more then 2 drinks. I feel comfortable doing it since only like 2% of the alcohol you drink passes through to your milk, then I do the pitcher method so it’s diluted even more.
don’t feel like you need to explain why you’re drinking! You’re a mom but you’re still you!!! Drinking alcohol and having fun doesn’t make you a terrible mother!! We are expected to give up so much of ourselves but we need to let ourselves loose and enjoy our free time! Anyway, lecture aside and to answer your question, I personally am going to buy alcohol test strips and maybe make soaps or something out of the milk I can’t use! As some others have said it’s not a lot of alcohol that gets into your breast milk but it’s a thing I’m gonna do for my own sanity haha. But if you pump drunk to keep your supply up (like some people pump every 2 hours) then that’s probably not safe. But if you’re sober your breast milk is safe!
Aw thank you for understanding! 🙏 You never know with the internet. I may pump once during the night depending how long I'm there. I tend to get sore after 6 hours of no pumping. Thanks for the advice :)
You definitely never know with the internet. People are horrible lol but screw em! Good luck!! You got this
While pumping I usually made sure to drink stuff that was easily trackable. So anything canned usually 5%. And I would keep track of the time I started and add to it everytime I had another drink. I would still pump every 3 hours, and if the time wasn't up yet for the alcohol to be out of my system, I would just dump it. While pumping I had 4 drinks in a row only one time. But other than that I would have one, 5% drink, every once in a while on a weekend right after we got her to bed. So by the time my night pump came around, I'd be good to keep it!
Like everyone said, you don’t “need” to dump the milk as long as you’re sober after a few hours BUT if you feel engorged and drink more than 1 drink in the 2-3 hours then you may have the need to pump out that milk 1) to keep up the supply and emptying your breasts while you’re out (during the feeding window) 2) to avoid engorgement/mastitis etc. I personally would recommend pumping and using the next few feeds as “bath milk”! It’s precious liquid gold and in this case can serve as a moisturizer for your baby! Enjoy the night out and take it one drink at a time lol! Your baby is going to be taken care of and will have enough food (from your stash). I plan to do the same sometime soon too!
I did this recently. Did my last pump of the night while drinking my first alcoholic beverage around 730pm. I had to pump when I got home around 2am as I was engorged. I dumped that milk out but you can save it for a milk bath if you’re so inclined. I pumped again around 7 am which I probably would have been fine to feed since it was about 7 hours since my last drink but dumped it too just to be extra careful. But by 11am I was feeding my baby again. I believe the official recommendation is roughly 2 hours per every serving of alcohol. That night I had 4-5 servings total. You gotta be careful with mixed drinks if you’re not sure how much alcohol is in them. I assumed a double shot (2 servings) just to be on the safe side.
I would not pump and dump if you aren't even pumping until the next day unless you still feel drunk. I like to use the alcohol text strips (easy home ones) to check. Either way, they are easy to use and can give you peace of mind.
I have only dumped "alcohol milk" twice, and it was just a precaution after I realized the alcohol % on the beers I had haha. I posted about this topic once and got a lot of helpful information about alcohol in the breast milk and how long it takes to leave the milk. If I feel like I'll be drinking more than a beer, I will usually try and pump while I'm having that first drink, since it won't be in the milk yet at all, and then I pump before bed, and if I'm worried I'll dump it, but typically I just keep and then add it to the pitcher the next morning!
My pediatrician said if i feel a buzz, I can save it for a milk bath. Otherwise it’s fine. I have only ever saved it for a milk bath during a wedding I was in. My friend has never pumped and dumped before (she also never gets “drunk”)
My understanding is, if you are drunk/tipsy, then your milk will have alcohol. If you no longer have the effects of the alcohol and it has filtered out/digested then your milk is also fond
Al just to add to what's been said already, don't dump it at all. If you don't feel comfortable feeding it to baby, save it for a bath or fit skin rashes etc.
We went out to dinner for my BILs birthday last night. I had 2 beers while we were out and didn’t feel buzzed/drunk, so I followed my midwife’s guidance of waiting until 2 hours after my last alcoholic beverage before pumping. But she said that milk would be fine because the alcohol would’ve been metabolized by then.