If you’ve been drinking kombucha and are wondering whether you can continue doing so while breastfeeding, then this post is for you.

In short… my answer is TECHNICALLY yes, however it is not safe for everyone (or every baby). But don’t despair, you might want to read on to learn more about how what you consume affects both you, and your baby.

Is kombucha safe for your baby?

Kombucha has caffeine in it. Babies have a caffeine half life of 48-72 hours. In adults, it takes 8 hours for half of our caffeine to break down. Basically, it means that any caffeine your baby is exposed to, it will take at least 2-3 days to break down half of it.

Now, how much caffeine goes into your milk will depend on your physiology and also the amount of caffeine you’ve ingested. And how your baby will respond to that caffeine will also depend on your baby’s physiology too.

If you drink a kombucha, and your baby is irritable afterwards, then it’s likely kombucha is not a good idea.

Kombucha and adrenal fatigue

If you’re craving kombucha in the way someone might crave coffee, then you might be using it in an unhealthy way. Kombucha stimulates the adrenals to produce additional cortisol, which your body might want if you’re sleep deprived or exhausted from being a mother. However, if this is the case it will further stress the adrenals and potentially lead to adrenal fatigue. This is where the adrenals are forced to produce high amounts of cortisol for prolonged periods of time that the reach the point of fatigue and cannot produce enough cortisol.

If you have had a stressful pregnancy, or diagnosed adrenal fatigue before/during pregnancy, this will impact your baby’s ability to handle stress. Why am I telling you this? Because then if you consider what kombucha is doing to your baby’s body, triggering some adrenal release of cortisol, if their body is already stressed from the pregnancy, is it possible that their system could easily get fatigued adrenals from small amounts of caffeine in the milk? This is my wondering, as I have noticed in practice that helping irritability in babies has better outcomes when I work with both mother and baby. There’s an undeniable connection between mother and baby that needs to be honoured.

Does Kombucha make you detox?

If you’re brand new to kombucha drinking, it can make you detox. As with anything fermented, it alters the state of your gut bacteria, and any changes can trigger some detox in your body.

While you’re breastfeeding, this detox can be passed via the milk to your baby. While breastfeeding advocates would suggest only a small amount will transfer via milk, the reality is, a little bit is a LOT for a little baby.

So if your baby becomes irritable after you drink Kombucha, and you’re confident it’s not the caffeine, it could actually be some detox!

Does kombucha support gut health?

Kombucha is fermented tea. It is claimed to have health benefits because the fermentation leads to probiotic properties. It is important to note that the majority of kombucha is lactobacillus strains. From my experience in practice, seeing a number of Bioscreen stool analyses, many people with chronic health issues are already high in lactobacillus (and low in other bacteria), which means drinking kombucha is going to make your gut more imbalanced. If you already have some gut health issues, I would be encouraging you to test and know what is in your gut before adding in more lactobacillus.

If you are already high in lactobacillus, you can make your gut imbalances worse. Plus, babies inherit a lot of their mother’s gut microbiome so it likely indicates your baby has the same issue, which would be amplified if you’re passing even more lactobacillus through the milk.

If you’re concerned with gut support, it is best to see someone like Michele (our gut health naturopath for babies and mums). Otherwise, I always recommend you start with prebiotics rather than probiotics for a gut support regime.

Drinking kombucha while pregnant

While we are primarily focused on breastfeeding, it’s important to consider these same reasons for drinking kombucha while pregnant.

The same rules apply - pregnancy is not the time to be starting to drink kombucha - because it can make you detox, it can alter your gut bacteria balance (sometimes for the worse not better), and it can stimulate your adrenals and your stress response.

If our babies are sensitive to kombucha when they’re earthside, imagine how much more sensitive a developing baby in the womb would be to stress, increased detox elimination, or microbial imbalances.

I would not recommend starting to drink kombucha while pregnant.

In saying that, if you’ve been having it for years beforehand, your gut is pretty good, and you feel confident in your microbiome balance, then it won’t cause too much disruption to have some kombucha!

Some women suggest that ginger kombucha is great for their morning sickness, but I’d encourage you to find your ginger from other sources (unless it’s one of those pregnancy cravings where you just cannot fathom anything else!).