Caffeine and breastfeeding

Caffeine can enter breast milk, via entering your bloodstream and can therefore stimulate your baby, which can cause some long-term health effects for your baby, e.g. high blood pressure³. It is therefore best to keep your caffeine content as low as possible. However as with alcohol and breastfeeding, caffeine is alright to consume while breastfeeding, if in moderation.

The NHS advise to only consumer 200mg a day of caffeine to avoid stimulating your baby1. Here are the levels of caffeine in different foods and drinks, so you can make sure you don’t overstimulate your baby when consuming caffeine and breastfeeding.

Caffeine levels of common foods and drinks^2,4.

Yes, you can drink coffee while breastfeeding. Coffee contains 140mg per filter cup and so you shouldn’t exceed more than 1 cup of filter or 2 cups of instant coffee a day while breastfeeding, to ensure that you don’t exceed the caffeine limit of 200mg a day recommended by the NHS¹.

Chocolate⁴ contains 10mg caffeine per 50g for milk chocolate, and so unless consuming large amounts should not stimulate your baby. However, chocolate does also contain theobromine, which a similar stimulant to caffeine. Theobromine levels in chocolate are also not high, but when combined with caffeine could have a stronger effect. So, it is best to consume small amounts of chocolate to not overstimulate your baby. So, in short you can still have chocolate while breastfeeding, just make sure you aren’t consuming large amounts.