Bottle Envy

The so-tired-my-eyelid-is-twitching part of me loves The Big Book of Martinis for Moms, a fun, colorful cocktail recipe book pairing drinks with life milestones like surviving that first supermarket meltdown. (Irony of ironies, my first survived meltdown took place in a wine shop. I kid you not!)

Former St. Louis bartender and award-winning food writer Rose Maura Lorre has a wickedly good sense of humor and a knack for flavorful combinations of booze. Combine that with a new baby, and this book was only a matter of time.

The kid health blogger in me is more of a killjoy. It’s the part that worries about neurotoxins, addiction, impaired parenting behaviors and healthy family relationships. At what point does the occasional libation for a nursing mom become a joint on the balcony? And if it does, is that still OK?

While conclusive scientific evidence is hard to come by, there is a consensus that a single drink, consumed with food and chased with water, then given at least two hours to clear out of mom’s system before breastfeeding, is probably OK. Babies’ livers are still immature and slow to process alcohol, but they can handle the small amounts that might remain in the breast milk. Even the American Association of Pediatrics is OK with this.

Expert opinions vary on how old a baby should be before being exposed to even trace amounts of alcohol. Some say at least one month, others at least three months. In part, this is because:

• Babies tend to consume less breast milk after their mothers drink alcohol, and young babies need all the nutrients, fats and calories they can get.
• Young babies’ feeding patterns tend to be unpredictable, and it’s hard to tell when that anticipated two-hour window will close early.
• It’s hard to determine what impact residual alcohol might have on brain development during a time of incredible growth and learning.

Some experts suggest feeding formula after imbibing; breastfeeding advocacy organizations like La Leche League suggest either pumping ahead of time and feeding breast milk in a bottle or waiting for the alcohol to be processed. Either way, planning ahead is important.

The mother’s little helper barbiturates The Rolling Stones immortalized in their 1966 song aren’t so common anymore, but given the recent push to legalize marijuana, there are some misconceptions of it as a “safe” alternative to other drugs. In fact, marijuana is in the highest category of “contraindicated” drugs for breastfeeding, and because it can take more than 24 hours to clear from the mother’s system, nursing mothers would have to pump and discard the milk several times before it was OK to feed their baby again.

And if your drug of choice is good old caffeine? Wait an hour before nursing and limit your joe to fewer than three cups a day. More than that can affect your level of iron, which both you and your baby need.

If you’re just starting out on this parenthood journey and you decide to celebrate the fact that you survived childbirth with one of Maura Lorre’s Classic Gin Martinis, the killjoy side of my brain is just going to have to suck it up, because the eye-twitching side is rooting for you and your new bundle of terror joy.

By Amy De La Hunt, Health blogger for SmartParenting

By day, Amy De La Hunt hears plenty of good information and advice about parenting and child development in her role as curriculum developer for Parents as Teachers, a St. Louis-based nonprofit. And every evening her sons, ages 9 and 6, bring home the reality that there is plenty of parenting wisdom yet to be revealed. Her "a-ha moments" frequently make their way into her health-related posts for St. Louis Kids. She also writes about food, restaurants, nutrition, and other lifestyle topics for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Alive magazine, and Gayot.com. At their home in St. Louis, Amy and her sons dabble in gardening, art, reading, cooking, running and raising chickens in the backyard.