Nursing Mothers Rejoice...Thank You, Milkscreen!

Nursing your baby is such a wonderful thing for so many reasons. But there is one downside to nursing...everything that you consume, your baby consumes. The most notable and negative ones - medications and alcoholic beverages.

You can't get around medications, but alcoholic beverages can be eliminated from your breast milk by "pumping and dumping." (Yes, you do exactly what it says in the quotation marks.)

But here is my question, how do you know when you need to pump and dump, and how do you know when you have pumped and dumped enough of the "toxic" breast milk?

Enter Milkscreen.

Milkscreen is this fabulous invention that is a test strip that tells you whether your milk contains too much alcohol for baby to drink(blood alcohol above 0.02%). As I have learned from the makers of Milkscreen, studies show that the effects of alcohol begin to appear when an infant consumes breast milk containing alcohol at 0.03% and higher.

Now that I am pretty much done breast feeding my second (and last) child, I know when I have had too much to drink and can't nurse my daughter without pumping and dumping. But the Milkscreen has really served as a lifesaver to let me know when my milk is safe for her to drink.

I tried the Milkscreen just last weekend after attending an amazingly fun holiday party. After applying just a few drops of breast milk to the test strip, I was pleased to find that I had pumped and dumped enough to resume nursing my daughter again.

The holidays are here and New Year's Eve is less than 2 weeks away. If you are a nursing mom and you want to have some fun (as you should), you have to try Milkscreen. The peace of mind is priceless. You can buy Milkscreen at BabiesRUs, Target, or at Upspringbaby.com. Milkscreen retails for $5.99 for a 3 pack of test strips and $19.99 for a 20 pack of test strips.

If you aren't a nursing mom but have a friend that is expecting or currently nursing, this could be a great gift, too!

Having said all this, please drink responsibly.