22nd February 2012
New mums who are getting to grips with the different feeding, changing and sleeping patterns their newborns are going through might be tempted to reach for a cup of coffee to stay awake.
But research has found that breastfeeding women who drink a lot of the black stuff could be passing caffeine to their baby through their milk, causing their little one wakefulness and irritability.
Mothers who are getting used to using their feeding bras are advised to monitor the amount of caffeine they consume each day, as the drug can be found in tea, chocolate, some soft drinks, sports beverages and certain over the counter medications, as well as that mouth-watering cappuccino.
Dr Ruth Lawrence, who appeared in an interview in the Journal of Caffeine Research, explained: "Usually a mother, particularly if she is breastfeeding, is cautioned to limit her caffeine intake."
New mums should "consume all things in moderation and try to avoid the excesses that might really add up to a lot of caffeine".
However, if mothers have consumed caffeine throughout their pregnancy, their child may have become used to metabolising the drug. But newborns generally find it harder to process and excrete caffeine, so too much caffeine consumed by the breastfeeding mum could cause an accumulation in babies.
"The ability to metabolise caffeine is acquired during the first year of life, and whereas adults have an elimination half-life of about five hours on average, the caffeine elimination half-life in a newborn infant is something of the order of four days," noted Jack James, editor-in-chief of the research journal.
Informal guidelines caution feeding mothers to drink no more than three cups of coffee, or 300mg of caffeine, a day, which Dr Lawrence believes is "a reasonable starting place".
"It would be a good marker or a good starting point if a child is very restless and wakeful and irritable, that one might consider reducing the intake of caffeine," she added.
