Can you drink coffee when you’re breastfeeding? Here are the potential risks and what the experts recommend when it comes to caffeine and breastfeeding.

illustration of woman pumping breast milk and drinking coffee with text overlay Caffeine and Breastfeeding - What the Experts Recommend

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Let’s go through some common questions that you may have about caffeine and breastfeeding. (For the record, I drank 2 cups of coffee every day while exclusively pumping and could not have made it through without it!)

What are the risks of drinking caffeine and breastfeeding?

According to LactMed, “[f]ussiness, jitteriness and poor sleep patterns have been reported in the infants of mothers with very high caffeine intakes.”

(Note: “very high caffeine intakes” was defined as 10 cups of coffee per day or more.)

Signs of caffeine sensitivity in infants

If you drink caffeine and are concerned about the possible effects on your baby, some things to watch for include:

  • Irritability
  • Difficulty getting to sleep and/or staying asleep
  • Fussiness

It’s important to note that babies react to caffeine differently, and a lot depends on the baby. The only real way to find out how much caffeine is too much for YOUR baby is to watch your baby and see if she is struggling with sleep or jitteriness.

One additional thing to note is that younger babies may be more sensitive to caffeine than older babies, because it takes them longer to metabolize it. (The half-life of caffeine in a newborn is 97.5 hours, while it’s 14 hours for a 3-5 month old.)

Therefore, if you decide to stop or reduce caffeine consumption because of the effects on your baby, you may be able to try again later, when baby is older.

How long does caffeine stay in breast milk?

Caffeine does appear in breast milk, and it peaks within one hour of ingestion and then begins to drop.

For example, one study found:

Five women who were 4 months to 1 year postpartum were given a dose of 150 mg of caffeine orally as caffeine sodium benzoate solution 2 hours after breakfast. Average caffeine levels at 30, 60 and 120 minutes after the dose were 1.6, 1.5, and 0.9 mg/L, respectively.

How to get rid of caffeine in breast milk

Unfortunately, there is no way to actively get rid of caffeine in breast milk – you have to just wait it out.

As noted above, it seems to move our your system quickly, with levels dropping quite a bit two hours after ingestion.

Decaf coffee and breastfeeding

If you are trying to reduce the amount of caffeine that you consume, decaffeinated beverages are an option. Most still do have some caffeine, but much less than the “normal” options.

For example, a Grande coffee from Starbucks has 310mg of caffeine, while the same size decaf coffee has 25mg.

Caffeine and nipple vasospasms

One other thing to consider, aside from the effects on the baby, are the possible effects on you.

If you suffer from nipple vasospasms, where your nipple turns white, hurts, and is sensitive to cold temperatures immediately after pumping or nursing, you may want to avoid caffeine as it can make them worse.

Caffeine and breastfeeding – official recommendations

According to LactMed, “[i]nsufficient high-quality data are available to make good evidence-based recommendations on safe maternal caffeine consumption.”

Medications and Mother’s Milk rates caffeine as Lactation Risk Category L2 (safer).

One other interesting thing to note is that caffeine is given to some premature babies as a treatment for breathing problems at a higher level than would be in the breast milk of most people who consume caffeine.

Bottom line

Watch your baby to see if caffeine seems to have any effect, but don’t worry about this too much unless you drink a lot of caffeine.

(Again, most of the reported effects in LactMed were with people drinking amounts such as 20 cups of coffee per day, or 5 cups of coffee and 4 mugs of tea.)

If you are drinking a lot of caffeine and notice baby is not sleeping well, you could try reducing your consumption for a few weeks and see if there is improvement. It may take some time (a few days to a week) to see changes.

Finally, I did a few Instagram polls to get an idea of how many people drank caffeine while breastfeeding and whether they saw any effects.

screenshot of instagram poll with the question Do you drink caffeine (coffee, tea, etc.) while lactating? Yes: 90% No: 10%

And what they thought about the effects:

Screenshot of instagram poll - Question was - if you drink caffeine while lactating, do you see any effects in your baby? Yes 7%, Not sure 29%, No 64%

Do you drink caffeine while breastfeeding? Let us know your experience in the comments!

References

  1. Bonyata, Kelly, IBCLC. “Breastfeeding and caffeine.” https://kellymom.com/bf/can-i-breastfeed/lifestyle/caffeine/
  2. Westerfield KL, Koenig K, Oh R. Breastfeeding: Common Questions and Answers. Am Fam Physician. 2018 Sep 15;98(6):368-373. PMID: 30215910. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30215910/





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