Coffee and Breastfeeding?

I had two different doctors with each pregnancy and they both said the same thing, a cup (or two) of coffee a day is fine. Go ahead and enjoy.

Hi Rachel:

I understand your coffee dilemma. For many moms, coffee will give us that extra 'jump start' we need in the mornings sometimes, especially if we have a young one in the house and other children who have needs as well. After a long, sleepless night with the little one, one cup in the morning sure is tempting.

Here's the thing: In my experience as a natural medicine practitioner, I see a lot of women who suffer from caffeine addiction. Unfortunately, caffeine is a narcotic. And like most drugs, the more frequently we take it the more we need to get the same response. I had one client who was up to 5 cups every morning by noon - and if she didn't have her five cups she would get a screaming headache.

If you are breastfeeding, then some of the caffeine effects will pass to your child. More importantly, you are setting yourself up for complications of caffeine addiction (constipation, headaches, jitters and frazzled nerves), which will affect how you are with your kids.

The best choice I can offer is to do a 10-day caffeine detox: start with a half a cup of decaf mixed with a half a cup of regular coffee, and slowly over a week's time reduce the half cup of regular until you are completely on decaf. If you find you start to experience headaches, go to www.naturessunshine.com and get their tincture for caffeine detox. That will help. And your baby will be much better off for it.

Good Luck!

L. Gregory, D.Ay.
Manhattan Beach, CA

Hi R.,

As you say...there are a lot of opinions to be had- by doctors as well as moms. From what I've read, breastmilk has a lot of sugar. So I would reasonably expect it to have some effect on teeth. I wouldn't worry too much at this stage, though, since your little one is still young. Also, unlike a bottle, if they fall asleep with the breast, it's not going to continue to drip and pool in their mouth once they're no longer suckling. To be on the safe side, I would be sure to clean their gums/teeth in the morning.

I'm actually having the same trouble with my baby. She'll be 1 year old on Wednesday and does not care to eat/drink anything but breastmilk. She likes the taste of cow's milk, but will only drink a few gulps and then refuses it. I actually got her to drink about 5oz of it in a bottle the other day. She slept longer than she normally does on breastmilk. But the next night she wouldn't take the bottle. My plan is to move her from the breast to the bottle, then to a sippy cup at night so that hopefully she can be weaned completely from the night feeding by 2 years old at latest. My plan sounds good on paper, but we'll see just how she actually takes to it.

As for the coffee...I have read that even during pregnancy, 1 cup is not harmful to your baby. I noticed a couple of moms mentioned their babies not being able to sleep, so maybe you should just be watchful of your little one. If it seems to affect her, then maybe you should re-think it, but otherwise you both should be fine. I have a cup maybe 4 mornings a week (the colder it gets the more often I tend to drink it daily) and occassionally even get a craving for iced coffee at night (summer). I have not noticed any correlation to my baby's sleep pattern.

During the delivery of my 3rd child, there was a complication with the epidural. The needle pierced my spinal sheath and spinal fluid was leaking out. Apparently, this causes those severe "spinal headaches" you may have heard about. As long as I was in a horizontal position, I had no pain. Even lifting my head 3 inches off the pillow was torture. My doctor told me to ingest as much caffiene as possible. It helps restrict the blood vessels (and close the sheath). I did. Not only did I drink bucketfuls of coffee, I also had Mountain Dew and NoDoze.... all the while breastfeeding!! Well, my "baby" is 7 years old now, and there is not one thing wrong with him. Well, he doesn't listen very well, but I guess that's common with second grade boys. :) He's in perfect health, beautiful, and highly intelligent. I say - if you want coffee, go for it! I doubt you'll be able to "take" as much as I did, but even if you do, I don't think you will have any problems!

Hi.
How wonderful you are!!!! Don't worry, dental caries form in babies mouths at night only on the bottle. Because they don't have to suck to get milk from the bottle the milk pools in their mouth and so bathes the teeth in the sugary formula for long periods, causing cavities.

Luckily nature has taken care of this problem!! Because on the breast the baby has to suck to get milk--the very reasons why breastfeeding is better for formation of good jaw muscles--the sucking motion takes the milk down to the throat and doesn't let the milk pool. Even if it did breastmilk is not made of sugar and would not rot the teeth the same way.

Breastfeeding is perfect at night! You just roll over and you both fall asleep. Other ways are not so easy!!!!

A word of caution, you are already doing it the natural, easy way. If you stop this now you may regret it for many reasons.

Keep being a great mom!!

Deb

Hi R.:

Bottle feeding causes tooth decay - not breastfeeding. I would just continue the breastfeeding through the night. She is still very young and I think breast is best! She'll wean herself eventually.

As for the coffee. If she is not sleeping as well or is hyper during the day I would eliminate it. If you don't see any change - then enjoy your 1 cup!

Best to you,

M.

I am a mother of a 6 month old and am drinking coffee. I didn't have any from the second I found out that I was pregnant until she was about two months old. I had to take care of her and my sick father, and to make it worse we had to switch from eastern time to pacific. I was trying to keep my baby on track. Coffee was a must have. I had and still have just one cup a day and it is a life saver. She does not have any trouble with sleep and didn't even when I was exclusivly breatfeeding her. I wouldn't worry about it because one cup of coffee would harldy enter your milk anyway. Plus her primary diet is not breastmilk any more. You might want to stop if you notice that she isn't sleeping as well anymore.

i love my starbucks!! i nurse by 5 month old and have coffee everyday. I do find that if it is too close to the evening hours, he seems a bit restless at night. Try decaf, or drink caffinated early in the day. I don't think a couple of cups a day is harmful. everything in moderation!
You need to know your baby, and respond to him and his needs. Only you know what is best! :)

I have nursed five children till 2.5- 3 years of age and never saw any tooth decay. If you want to stop you should find a better reason :) it takes about a week ...with little sleep and alot of noice.

Hi R. G, Why do you want to stop breastfeeding? There's no harm to your babies teeth at all and have you noticed that your baby does not droll like bottle fed babies? Breastfeeding is great I was a stay at home mom for my last son whose now 19 years and he breastfeed till 5 years old just like my father. Back in my dad's day that was the only form of milk that was logical. My dad's now 79 going strong. My 19 year old Shane was the best baby and learned so fast following his two brothers. He never crawled just got up on three then two up and running at nine months. He learned to swim at 20 months and played football since he was 5 yrs. When he was eleven he won the Championship game and has the trophy to prove it.He's a great artist. He goes to San Jose State University and is studying US History to teach. I tell you one day after kindergarten he came home and reach for my breast I let him and then the next no more. He's so great I always tell this story and people are amazed. I am too but I had to do it since my dad always told us growing up that he was breastfeed till five. I guess I wanted to see for myself and yes it's definately the best thing I ever did for Shane during his first five years of life. I could go on and on about the benefits. Coffee will not hurt her either just put extra cream if you are really concerned. My German Grandma said to drink one beer a day for lots of healthy thick milk I highly recommend it. Aloha,M.

GREAT job breast feeding, keep it up! Put her in her crib, with you there, it's like putting a sundae on the table in front of you and telling you not to eat it.

Breastmilk is anticariogenic, so you don't need to worry about tooth decay. It actually fights it! Night weaning is a challenge. Offer a sippy cup of nothing but water. It will take a few nights or up to a week for your child's metabolism to get used to not having calories in the middle of the night. After a while, she will decide that it's just not worth it to wake up just for water. I have night-weaned all three of my kids this way, but it never worked until 15 months, so I'd wait a while. And be prepared for a few rough nights. They don't do this willingly. I mean, really, if you slept next to the best restaurant in town, you'd want to stop in all the time, too, right? Good luck.

I don't know about the coffee, except that in my case any caffeine after about 2:00 in the afternoon kept my baby awake well after her bedtime. Anyway, about your first question... does your baby understand "all gone" or "no more"? Work on these concepts and it should get a little easier. I had to stop breastfeeding at 8 months so after I dried up, I explained to my daughter that "Mommy's milk is all gone. No more milk." The transition, while not a walk in the park, was fairly smooth and quick.

In response to the first question: try Dr. Jay Gordon's website, he has an article on nighttime weaning--he doesn't advocate cry it out, but has a multistep process he outlines over several days to nightwean baby. I agree though that nightweaning is not necessary to prevent tooth decay--although it's controversial, you'll hear both sides I'm sure. I breastfed my 5 year old unti lhe was 2.5, and he to this day has no dental problems.
T.

Hi R.,
Well, here's my opinion:
I have a cup and I breastfeed. In fact, I drank coffee throughout my pregnancy. (As it happened I didn't want it as much, so I lowered my intake)
I feed my baby first, have a cup and by the time it's time to feed her again, the caffeine is so minimal that I don't sweat it. I say, breast milk with trace amounts of coffee in it is better than formula anyday.
My baby is bright, cheery and happy and healthy. She's 7 months old and a complete crack up. I think she's fine!

E.