Is Caffeine Safe to Take While Breastfeeding

Dr. Nice Answers:

Is Caffeine Safe to Take While Breastfeeding

 Caffeine Guidelines for Breastfeeding

 Caffeine guidelines are quite simplistic to follow.

• Even though clearance of caffeine in infants is markedly reduced, caffeine  ingested through breastmilk by nursing children is usually insignificant, if                                         reasonable amounts (1 cup to 2 cups per day) of coffee, tea, and/or caffeine-                            containing soft drinks are used by mother.  See Stimulants for amounts of                           caffeine in these drinks
• Less than 150 mg two to three times a day has no apparent effect on the                                     breastfeeding infant
• Mothers of newborns, and in particular of premature newborns, should avoid          caffeine if at all possible
•    If taking theophylline containing products (these are usually used for asthma),        mothers should avoid drinks containing caffeine

 

To adequately be able to follow the caffeine content limits, it would be nice to know just how much caffeine is present in the many caffeine containing drinks.  To do that, a list of caffeine containing drinks follows.

For Caffeine Content of Beverages, See the Table Below

 

 

COFFEE (5 oz cup)                              CAFFEINE CONTENT (mg) Drip method                                                        110-150Percolated                                                           64-124Instant                                                                  40-108Decaffeinated                                                      2-5Instant Decaffeinated                                          2  TEA (5 oz cup)                                      CAFFEINE CONTENT (mg) 1 minute brew                                                     9-333 minute brew                                                     20-465 minute brew                                                     20-50Instant tea                                                            12-28Iced tea (12 oz cup)                                             22-36 

 

 

 

SOFT DRINK/SODA (12 oz serving) CAFFEINE CONTENT (mg)

 

Jolt                                                                       72.0

Sugar-Free Mr Pibb                                            58.8

Mountain Dew                                                    54.0

Mello Yello                                                         52.8

Tab                                                                      46.8

Coca-Cola                                                           45.6

Coke                                                                    45.6

Diet Coke                                                            45.6

Shasta Cola                                                         44.4

Shasta Cherry Cola                                             44.4

Shasta Diet Cola                                                 44.4

Shasta Diet Cherry Cola                                     44.4

Mr Pibb                                                               40.8

Dr Pepper                                                            39.6

Big Red                                                               38.4

Sugar-Free Dr Pepper                                         39.6

Pepsi-Cola                                                           38.4

Aspen                                                                  36.0

Diet Pepsi                                                            36.0

Pepsi Light                                                          36.0

RC Cola                                                               36.0

Diet Rite                                                              36.0

Kick                                                                     31.2

Canada Dry Jamaica Cola                                   30.0

Canada Dry Diet Cola                                           1.2