How much caffeine for breastfeeding moms

Caffeine Sources

Caffeine can be found in coffee, tea, soft drinks, sports/energy drinks (including the “sports water” products), some over-the-counter and prescription medications, and foods containing coffee or chocolate. Herbal products containing guarana/paullinea cupana, kola nut/cola nitida, yerba maté, or green tea also contain caffeine. Following is information on caffeine content of various foods.

Typical caffeine content of various foods (Caffeine in tea & coffee will vary widely depending on brewing, etc)
Product	Size (ounces)	Caffeine (mg)	Product	Size (ounces)	Caffeine (mg)
Coffee			Soda
Starbucks Coffee, short	8	250	7-Eleven Big Gulp cola	64	190
Starbucks Coffee, tall	12	375	Mountain Dew	12	55
Starbucks Coffee, grande	16	500	Diet Coke	12	46
Starbucks Caffe Latte or Cappuccino, grande	16	70	Coke Classic	12	36
Starbucks Coffee Frappuccino	9.5	98	Vanilla Coke	12	32
Starbucks Espresso, double	2	70	Dr. Pepper, regular or diet	12	42
Maxwell House Cappuccino (various)	8	45-65	Pepsi-Cola	12	40
Coffee, brewed (non-gourmet)	8	120-180	Sunkist Orange Soda	12	34
Coffee, instant	8	80	Barq’s Root Beer	12	22
Coffee, decaffeinated	8	3	Caffeine-free versions of Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Barq’s, etc.	12	0
			Minute Maid Orange, Slice, Sprite, 7-Up, A&W Root Beer, Mug Root Beer	12	0
Tea			Ice cream, yogurt, candy
Tea, leaf or bag	8	48	Starbucks Coffee Java Chip Ice Cream	4	28
Tea, green	8	30-35	Häagen-Dazs Coffee Ice Cream	4	24
Arizona Iced Tea, assorted varieties	16	15-30	Breyers Chocolate Ice Cream	8	6
Snapple Iced Tea	16	42	Dannon Coffee Yogurt	6	36
Other drinks			Stonyfield Farm Cappuccino Yogurt	8	0
Cocoa or Hot Chocolate	8	2-5	Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar	1.55	10
Herbal iced tea, lemonade, fruit juice, milk, tap water, plain bottled water	12	0	Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate bar	1.45	31

Half-Life of Caffeine
Age	Half-Life
Newborn	65-130 hours [2.7-5.4 days]
3 – 5 months	approx. 14 hours
4-9 months	3-7 hours
Adult	3-7 hours
References: USP DI 2001, Hale 2010

Per Medications and Mother’s Milk (Hale 2010, p. 150-151) caffeine is in Lactation Risk Category L2 (safer); milk levels are quite low (0.06-1.5% of maternal dose) and usually peak 1-2 hours after ingestion. One study has indicated that chronic coffee drinking might decrease iron content of breastmilk (Nehlig & Debry, 1994). The American Academy of Pediatrics has classified caffeine as a “Maternal Medication Usually Compatible with Breastfeeding.” Caffeine is given directly to premature babies (as a treatment for breathing problems) in much higher levels than than those generally found in the breastmilk of mothers who consume caffeine.
If your baby is sensitive to caffeine, it will typically become less of an issue as baby gets older. Newborns have a much harder time metabolizing caffeine than older infants. Preterm or ill infants might also have more problems with mom’s caffeine intake.

http://kellymom.com/bf/can-i-breastfeed/lifestyle/caffeine/