Wednesday, February 2, 2011

No more Starbucks?

Chris and I have wondered for some time now whether S might have a sensitivity to caffeine. We've noticed that she seems to be fussier, more difficult to put down and more likely to wake through the night when I'd had one or more caffeinated bevvies, especially from the 'bucks. For example, yesterday I had a caramel macchiato and we couldn't get her to sleep until after midnight (when we'd had "success" the previous few nights getting her down by about 11 - more on this in an upcoming post) and then she woke at 3:30 and 7 to fuss 'n' feed (whereas she'd been starting to sleep for much longer chunks for several days). According to Babycenter and other sites, small amounts of caffeine are not harmful per se when breastfeeding, however some babies are particularly sensitive, exhibiting symptoms like we've noticed in S. Luckily it seems these babies usually grow past their sensitivity within 5-6 months. I do love my coffee (latte-based bevvies in particular as of late), however moreso for the taste and the experience than the caffeine, assuming I'm getting a decent amount of sleep. Which is almost exclusively dependent on S's habits on a particular night. Which (to my earlier point) appear to be negatively affected by the caffeine. Soooo, I figure the logical move here is to switch to decaf for awhile and thus eliminate the vicious circle; a much healthier and happier option for both of us! *nods*

2 comments:

  1. Yes, switching to decaf should solve your problems! I had to stay away from milk for the first 6 months and that was tough but certainly worth it (even if it only meant one extra hour of sleep some nights).

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  2. How did you guys narrow down that milk was a problem? Did you do allergy testing? We were thinking of doing this a few weeks back when she was in a fussier phase, but now she's much better - seems coffee's the only thing I ingest that appears to affect her.

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