Drinking While Breastfeeding Tied To Cognitive Problems in Young Kids

Article Source: Reuters Health Breastfeeding mothers who drink alcohol may be more likely to have children with cognitive problems than women who abstain while nursing, an Australian study suggests. For the study, researchers examined results of reasoning tests completed by 5,107 children, as well as questionnaires completed by their mothers detailing whether they nursed babies at all and how often they smoked cigarettes or drank alcohol while pregnant or breastfeeding. Breastfed babies had lower nonverbal reasoning scores at six to seven years old when their mothers consumed any alcohol while during the period they were nursing, and kids’ scores looked worse the more women drank, researchers report in Pediatrics. “This matters because it suggests that there is no safe level of alcohol for a breastfeeding mother to drink,” said lead study author Louisa Gibson of Macquarie University in Australia. “The