1043-3155 Pediatr Neurol Briefs pedneurbriefs Pediatr Neurol Briefs Pediatric Neurology Briefs Pediatr Neurol Briefs 2166-6482 1043-3155 2166-3155 Pediatric Neurology Briefs Publishers Chicago, IL, USA PNB-3-72-b 10.15844/pedneurbriefs-3-9-13 Seizure Disorders Neurology Pediatrics Nervous System Diseases Child Development Brain Diseases Neurosurgery Child Infant Alcohol During Breast-Feeding and Infant Development http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0173-7931 Millichap J. Gordon MD 1 2 * Division of Neurology, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL Correspondence: Dr. J. Gordon Millichap, E-mail: jgmillichap@northwestern.edu 09 1989 01 08 2016 3 9 72 72 Copyright: © 1989 The Author(s) 1989 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Maternal alcohol use during breast-feeding and infant mental and motor development at one year

The relation of the mother's use of alcohol during breast feeding to the infant's development at one year of age has been investigated in 400 infants studied in the Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of Epidemiology and Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle.

 Breast Feeding Bayley Mental Development Index Psychomotor Development Index

The relation of the mother's use of alcohol during breast feeding to the infant's development at one year of age has been investigated in 400 infants studied in the Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of Epidemiology and Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle. Mental development, as measured by the Bayley Mental Development Index, was unrelated to maternal drinking during breast-feeding. However, motor development, as measured by the Psychomotor Development Index, was significantly lower in infants exposed regularly to alcohol in breast milk with a dose response relation. [1]

COMMENT. Nursing mothers can no longer enjoy a glass of beer as a prescribed method for sedating a sleepless baby without risking a detrimental effect on the infant's development. The practice of offering the parents a complimentary dinner with champagne at the time of discharge from maternity units will have to cease, or if continued, with moderation and caution. It may be argued that the results of this study are suggestive but the detrimental effects on the development are not sufficiently severe to be clinically important for the individual child. The finding that the mental development of infants exposed to alcohol through breast feeding was not affected is of interest and might be explained by the timing of the exposure and the age at which the child was tested.

 Little RE Anderson KW Ervin CH Worthington-Roberts B Clarren SK Maternal alcohol use during breast-feeding and infant mental and motor development at one year N Engl J Med 1989 Aug 17 321 7 425 430 10.1056/NEJM198908173210703 2761576