Can a Nursing Mother Eat Food Cooked With Alcohol?

After living without alcohol for the nine months of your pregnancy, you might look forward to have a glass of wine now and then or a burger with a bourbon glaze. But if you're breastfeeding, you might also feel like you need to continue your abstinence program until you wean your baby. Fortunately, this isn't true. Nursing moms can consume some alcohol without harming their baby. And most foods cooked with alcohol don't retain enough alcohol to exceed your limits.

Breastfeeding and Alcohol

Consuming a small amount of alcohol occasionally doesn't harm your nursing infant, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The organization recommends ingesting no more than 2 ounces of liquor, 8 ounces of wine or two beers at one time if you weigh around 125 pounds. La Leche League International reports that your consumption of a single drink per day or less has no proven ill effects on your baby. In large amounts, alcohol can decrease your milk supply; it can also make your baby sleepy, weak and lethargic; chronic alcohol ingestion in breast milk can also cause decreased linear growth in your baby.

Cooking Methods

Many dishes use alcohol to enhance their flavors. Not all the alcohol remains in the food after it cooks; the manner of cooking influences how much alcohol remains in the foods. When you're nursing, stick to cooking methods that give you the least amount of alcohol. When you add alcohol to a recipe that needs no further cooking, such as to a refrigerated dessert, the alcohol content doesn't change at all. Flaming alcohol burns off less than cooking it slowly; a flamed dish may still contain 75 percent of the alcohol it started with, according to "Today" at Colorado State University. Simmering reduces the amount of alcohol in a dish in a time-dependent manner. Cooking in a smaller pan also retains more alcohol, because there's less surface area for alcohol to evaporate from.

The Effects of Time

The longer you cook a food, the less alcohol remains. Around 40 percent of the original alcohol content survives after simmering a dish for 15 minutes and only 5 percent remains after 2 1/2 hours, according to CSU. Adding alcohol to boiling liquid and then removing the liquid immediately from the heat causes the liquid to retain around 85 percent of its alcohol content.

Exceeding the Limit

If you do occasionally overindulge in alcohol, whether it's in food or straight out of a glass, when breastfeeding, you don't have to throw out the breast milk and head for the formulas. You do have to wait two hours after your last drink before breastfeeding, to allow time for the alcohol to pass out of your breast milk, the AAP recommends. Alcohol doesn't remain in breast milk, unless you pump it; then it has no place to go. When it stays in your breast, it diffuses back out into your bloodstream; as your blood alcohol level drops, so does the level of alcohol in your breast milk. Less than 2 percent of the alcohol you consume reaches your breast milk, according to certified lactation consultant Kelly Bonyata. It's rarely necessary to "pump and dump" unless you're really uncomfortable and won't be nursing for several hours.