Breastfeeding Tips Part 1 – Foods To Avoid While Breastfeeding
Most mums will be concerned on what foods to avoid while breastfeeding. I have personally tried all of the below foods during breastfeeding (mostly on my first baby as I do not know alot then) as sometimes, I admit its not easy to avoid eating them.
Do note that foods mentioned here are on Mummies’ Breastfeeding Diet, not to be mistaken that its to be fed directly to baby.
| Cabbage Cabbage will reduce milk supply. However, if you have too much volume and breast frequently gets engorged, and wish to reduce the volume, then you can eat take this, and also put one leaf (let it cool in the fridge for best effects) on the breast to relive the pain, if any, then pump the milk out. Avoid this as long as you are breastfeeding and do not wish to reduce the milk supply. Tip: most hawker food like fish soup, mini pot noodles, contain cabbages, you may want to find out from the hawker and ask them not to put it in, if you are eating out. |
| Broccoli Avoid taking broccoli if your baby is below 4 months old. This is because broccoli causes wind in baby’s tummy, it will cause discomfort or even colic. Usually when baby reaches 4 months old, their tummy is now better developed to handle broccoli, but if you still find it causes wind, avoid it till baby is older e.g. 6 months old. |
| Citrus Fruits Avoid citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, strawberries, kiwifruit, pineapple. Once again, they affect baby’ stomach. Suggest to wait till baby is 4 months old or 6 months old, try them one by one, giving baby a few days grace before trying out another so that you know which one is still causing problems. |
| Spices Curry, chili, cinnamon, pepper does the same effect to baby as mentioned above. But the extent varies with every baby and also amount you take. My own experiences with my 3 kids tells me a little bit of spices every now and then is ok. I can still cope with the little discomfort at times. If you really can’t avoid such foods, do get a bottle of baby friendly medicated oil for the little tummy as well. |
| Caffeine & Chocolate Caffeine is found in teas, coffee, sodas. Try to keep this minimum like during pregnancy, one cup per day is ok. |
| Nuts Nut traces can be found in chocolate as well. Avoid peanuts, cashew nuts, basically nut products, till baby is one year old. Personally, nuts causes allergen in my baby, you may find it causes minor skin problem if you eat it when baby is before one year old. |
| Alcohol My baby doctor tells me to avoid alcoholic drinks, if I need to drink, its best to wait for 3 hours before feeding baby. For confinement mums, try to take it cooked, so that you dun have to worry about keeping the 3 hour time limit. That’s what I did. The alcohol drinks I am talking about here are Yomeishu, Dom that are good for nourishing health, especially for confinement mothers. |
| Herbal Tea I noticed that my milk supply drops whenever I took Aspalathus Linealis Tea, another name for it is Superoxide Dismutase Tea Essence. I took this for sake of reducing radical oxides and acid in my body… Now I have to abstain from it as I’m still breastfeeding. |
| Others Every baby is unique. Mothers do note that if baby is having discomfort and you are very sure its not any of the above mentioned, something else is causing discomfort. It could be allergens like egg, soy, wheat, corn or corn syrup. Else, it can also be something very very common. A lot of detective work needs to be done. Suggest you track what you eat, discomfort usually takes place 2 to 6 hours since your last feed, use that as a guide, and you should be able to track down the food in another few days time. My baby is allergic to chicken meat when she is a newborn, it was only when she is 9 months old then I began to eat chicken again… She will develop eczema, I tested several times and they appear on her every time I take that. That’s why I like to say, every baby is unique. |
October 20th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
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