Chronic ethanol intake in lactating rats: milk analysis.

Milk was analyzed at 5 and 15 days of lactation in rats fed an ethanol liquid diet or appropriate control diet. Alcoholic rats showed blood ethanol levels as high as 43 mM at the end of lactation. Milk from ethanol-fed rats showed an increase in pH, protein and lipids and a decrease in lactose, compared with controls. Chronic ethanol consumption seems to reduce the yield of milk. The nutritional status of sucklings from alcoholic mothers seems to be related more to the quantity of milk than to its quality.