A woman who is breastfeeding should monitor her diet. The restriction of certain products will help keep the baby healthy and calm. In addition, the body, having spent a lot of strength and energy on the birth of a child, also requires recovery and additional proper nutrition. What can and should not be for a nursing mother? This is what we will discuss in the article.
The value of breast milk
To establish breastfeeding means to give the newborn a full complex of vitamins and nutrients necessary for his normal growth and development. At the same time, doctors do not recommend trying to lose kilograms gained during pregnancy. After all, the quality of mother's milk will noticeably deteriorate if a young mother restricts herself in food.
In the first months of a baby’s life, it’s important to know what you should not eat a nursing mother, and what you need to add to the diet so that breast milk is healthy and tasty. After all, breastfeeding gives great protection to the baby from infections, allergic reactions, reduces the risk of intestinal diseases. Not a single artificial formula developed by a scientific center taking into account all the needs of a newborn will replace breast milk.
Reduce colic
The most common problem in infants is bloating. Painful sensations in newborns arise as a result of the immaturity of the digestive system. Being in the womb, the baby was fed through the umbilical cord. Having been born, the mechanism of food intake and digestion changes in the baby. A new system, which is still fully formed, also gives failures, manifested in the form of gas formation and bursting of the intestines.
Pediatricians noted that often colic occurs for the following reasons:
- improper attachment of the child, as a result of which the baby swallows air;
- lack of milk;
- muscle weakness of the baby;
- the use of lactating mother gas-generating products.
What foods should a mother refuse to reduce colic in a newborn? The list, unfortunately, is huge. First of all, these are legumes, cabbage, raw vegetables, apples, grapes, and yeast pastries.
Dangerous drinks
Alcohol is the first thing that is prohibited for a nursing woman. Contained toxic substances adversely affect the health of the newborn. Toxins are dangerous for brain cells, immature liver, kidneys and other internal organs of the baby. As a result of cell death in the future, children are inhibited, lagging in mental and physical development.
During breastfeeding, a woman should abandon carbonated drinks. Lemonade contains a huge amount of acid, which causes fermentation and bloating. In addition, the composition of cooling drinks includes various preservatives and flavors that can cause allergies. The risk of gas formation increases and bread kvass.
Packaged juices are recommended to be treated with caution. Whenever possible, doctors advise you to prepare drinks yourself. Natural juice not only quenches thirst, but also saturates the body with vitamins and minerals.
Specialists recommend replacing natural coffee and strong tea with herbal decoctions and infusions. Strong drinks can be exciting for a child. Tea made from chamomile, St. John's wort or lemon balm will not only calm the baby’s nervous system, but will also increase lactation in women.
Forgotten by most women, chicory is a good alternative to coffee. The healthy product is safe and tastes good.
Often in newborns, colic results from the use of whole milk by the mother. Intolerance to cow protein and irritates the digestive system of the baby, bringing him strong pain. In this case, it is necessary to completely abandon dairy products and monitor the baby's reaction. As a child grows up, cow's milk can be gradually introduced into the diet, initially giving preference to sour-milk products with low fat content.
Unsweetened life
What you can not eat a nursing mother? The list should be supplemented with various kinds of products that contain a lot of glucose. Sweets and pastry treats provoke fermentation processes and are considered the main allergens. Chocolate and baking can cause stomach dysfunction in crumbs and add extra pounds to a lactating woman.
What other foods can not be eaten by a nursing mother? Imported vegetables and fruits with red and orange peels must be excluded from the diet so as not to provoke an allergy in the child. The rule must be respected during the first 3 months.
If it is difficult for a young mother to do without sweets, halva and honey can be introduced in moderation in the diet. However, it should be noted that natural honey is a strong allergen. Therefore, if the baby reacts to innovation in the usual way, then you can mom can treat yourself to a useful product.
Delicate approach
Unfortunately, even with proper nutrition, a baby can have problems. Constipation is the most common cause of anxiety and crying in the first months of life. Stool retention is very dangerous for the baby’s tiny intestines. This condition can provoke inflammation of the mucous membrane and, as a result, intoxication of the body.
Preventing trouble is easy enough. It is enough to know that you can not eat a nursing mother. A woman in her diet needs to reduce the consumption of fixing foods. These are rice, potatoes, nuts, hard cheeses, fatty meat. Do not forget to drink an additional 1 glass per day of water.
When compiling a diet, it should be remembered that the restrictions on the menu of a young mother should be reasonable.
Double harm
What else can not eat a nursing mother? The list of products should include those that contain preservatives, dyes, flavor enhancers and other nutritional supplements. Semi-finished foods and canned foods, sausages and smoked meats, mayonnaise and ketchup, chips and crackers, processed cheeses are highly allergenic.
In addition, seafood, caviar, oily fish and eggs are also included in the list of dangerous foods for the child. Heavy food can cause bloating and gas formation.
Mushrooms on the menu
Despite the fact that mushrooms are a source of vegetable protein, antioxidants and minerals, it is strictly forbidden for nursing mothers to consume them.
Often, many women refuse fatty meat broths in favor of mushroom soup. However, this is a big mistake. And why not mushrooms of a nursing mother? They are in any way related to heavy food. When it enters the body through breast milk, the baby’s digestive system is under tremendous strain. An incompletely formed gastrointestinal tract is not able to break down plant protein due to the lack of necessary enzymes.
In addition, mushroom dishes are likely to provoke an allergic reaction in the crumbs. A rash, peeling and severe itching may appear in the child after a few hours.
What else are mushrooms dangerous? There are a lot of negative consequences:
- digestive system disorder - the occurrence of diarrhea or constipation, nausea and vomiting, not cooking food;
- disorders of the nervous system - intoxication of the body can lead to headaches, dizziness, sleep disturbances;
- weakening of immunity - against the background of poisoning by mushrooms, the body recovers several weeks.
When the child is 6 months old, you can try to introduce boiled or stewed champignons or oyster mushrooms grown in greenhouse conditions into your diet. They will not cause much harm in comparison with forest mushrooms. But this fact does not give a one hundred percent guarantee that champignons were grown without chemicals and additives. Therefore, it is better to abandon mushrooms in favor of the health of both mother and child.
Mom's inquiries
There are situations when the baby’s tummy does not bother, but he categorically refuses to feed. Most likely, the reason is the unpleasant taste of breast milk. The reason for this may be products that can not be eaten by a nursing mother. Spicy dishes, onions and garlic, even in small quantities, can give breast milk an uncharacteristic aftertaste, as a result of which the baby can refuse to breast.
With marinades and homemade pickles, especially with lard, it is also recommended to hold off. The salt and acids contained in the workpieces are poorly digested by the child's unformed system.
About the most important thing
If a baby may experience bloating or an allergic reaction from improper feeding of a nursing mother, then taking medications without consulting a doctor poses a threat to the health and life of the baby. The range of pharmacological agents is represented by a wide offer. Each drug is developed taking into account the characteristics of the patient. The attached instructions always indicate information on precautions for taking the drug while breastfeeding.
Often with serious illnesses, specialists prescribe a prohibited drug for a nursing mother. However, such an appointment is relevant provided that the therapeutic effect exceeds the potential risk.
Ban on breastfeeding
What to do if a woman drank alcohol even in small quantities? The scientific fact suggests that the maximum concentration of alcohol in human milk is reached after 30 minutes. However, according to doctors, it is impossible to feed the baby for two hours until the alcohol is processed by the liver and excreted by the body.
In order not to risk the health of the child at all, a woman can beat the situation. To do this, she should put in the bottle the necessary amount of milk consumed by the baby in one feeding. The container can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours. Milk will retain all its beneficial properties and replace the baby with full feeding.
It is allowed to eat
We now know that you cannot eat a nursing mother. The list of products, as you see, is pretty impressive. But this does not mean that the young mother has virtually no choice. Vegetable soups, buckwheat and barley groats, dietary rabbit or turkey meat, green vegetables, yogurts, bran, drying - a list of dishes that is absolutely safe for the health of the newborn.
Of course, looking at the allowed list, you can be upset. But such a strict diet should be observed only the first month after childbirth. In the subsequent period, the woman is allowed to introduce new products into her diet, monitoring the reaction of the child. With any concern and the slightest doubt, the new diet should be abandoned for a while.
Principles of Breastfeeding
Guided by feeding the basic advice of specialists, a nursing mother takes care of the health and well-being of her baby's development:
- a woman’s diet should include the maximum amount of nutrients and vitamins;
- if possible, it is necessary to use food products that grow in a given area;
- food should be limited, but without fanaticism, especially after the child is 3 months old;
- the calorie content of consumed foods should be 200-400 kcal higher than usual;
- if in doubt about the introduction of a new product, then it is better to wait.
Ideally, a nursing woman should keep a personal diary of food - a notebook where all the foods that she consumed are recorded. Such a habit is especially good when the introduction of new dishes begins. After all, a potential allergen can affect the baby’s condition not in a day or two, but accumulate in the body up to two weeks. Based on this, mom is not recommended to try a new dish during the specified period.
Consequently
We found out which foods a nursing mother should not eat. The nutrition of a woman who wants to maintain the possibility of feeding for a long time is very important. It depends on him:
- production and properties of milk;
- recovery of the body after a complex physiological process;
- physical and psychological development of the child;
- the resistance of the newborn to diseases;
- formation of immunity.
The importance of natural feeding lies in the fact that the baby is able to independently establish its own nutrition. By regulating milk intake, the baby will not remain hungry or overfed. In addition, applying to the chest, the newborn retains a sense of calm and protection from an unfamiliar world. This factor is especially important for premature and weak babies.