5 myths about breastfeeding nutrition that you must know - voila! health

Social media is full of breastfeeding advice - but not all of it is correct.

A breastfeeding woman (Photo: ShutterStock)

In everything related to breastfeeding, and breastfeeding nutrition in particular, there are many myths.

Social networks are full of advice, but not all of it is correct and some of it may even harm your quality of life at best, and breastfeeding at best less.

Here are five particularly common myths and the truth behind them.

When the baby cries and seems to be suffering, the immediate thought we have is that something in the milk that has passed from the diet is making him gassy.

Since legumes, i.e. beans, lentils, peas, chickpeas and the like, make us gassy, ​​the obvious conclusion is that if we eat them, the baby will also have gas.

Legumes make us gassy because they contain soluble fiber, a type of carbohydrate that our body is unable to digest.

Everything that our digestive system is unable to digest, eventually reaches the large intestine, where these fibers are broken down by the bacteria and the products of the breakdown are gases.

Since the soluble fibers reach the large intestine, they will not be absorbed into the blood, will not reach the milk and therefore will not affect the baby.

you can eat legumes while breastfeeding.

If you still feel that some specific food makes your baby uncomfortable, you can avoid it and see if it helps, but it's something very individual.

Breastfeeding can help return to pre-pregnancy weight.

A breastfeeding woman (Photo: ShutterStock)

2. Diet while breastfeeding will harm milk production

I have met over the years and I continue to meet women who, out of fear of harming milk production, ate more than what their body needed.

They believed that it was forbidden to diet while breastfeeding in order not to harm the milk.

Some of them gained weight beyond the weight at which they started the pregnancy.

To lose weight, a caloric deficit must exist.

That is, you need to take out more calories than you put into your body.

However, when breastfeeding it is important that the caloric deficit is not large.

Studies have shown that below 1,500 calories per day, the amount of milk may indeed be affected, therefore the recommendation of many health bodies is not to go below 1,800 calories per day.

This is the limit amount in which it is possible, with proper planning, to provide the body with all the nutrients it needs.

Since breastfeeding requires about 500 calories a day, theoretically breastfeeding can help a lot to return to the pre-pregnancy weight.

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In practice, there are other factors that affect your return to your pre-pregnancy weight.

Breastfeeding is not a panacea for weight loss, but neither is it a condition where you have to eat more than what your body needs.

If you feel you need help, the best is to contact a dietician who specializes in the field.

you can diet while breastfeeding, the emphasis is on getting back to your pre-pregnancy weight.

It is a moderate diet with a small calorie deficit, a healthy lifestyle and a lot of patience.

In such a situation, there is no harm in milk production.

. Caffeine passes through the milk and can reach the baby, so many women avoid coffee during breastfeeding.

Caffeine is absorbed very quickly into the blood and begins to reach the milk already within a quarter of an hour of consumption and the level of caffeine in milk reaches its peak within an hour of consumption.

Not all the caffeine that the mother drinks reaches the milk, but up to the age of 5 months, babies have a limited ability to break down caffeine, so caffeine can accumulate in the baby's blood, affect his sleeping and waking patterns and cause restlessness.

There is also evidence that the iron content in milk can decrease with regular coffee consumption.

After about 5 months of age, the baby's ability to break down caffeine per kilogram of body weight reaches that of an adult.

So you can completely avoid caffeine, that's perfectly fine, but caffeine is not forbidden while breastfeeding.

Allowed, to an extent.

Coffee (Photo: ShutterStock)

The recommendations of various health bodies are to consume no more than 200-300 mg of caffeine per day, the amount found in 2-3 cups of coffee. Some health bodies specify an upper limit of 200 mg, such as the European Food Safety Association (EFSA) and the NHS, the health services in Great Britain.

You can also be satisfied with one cup of coffee a day in the first 5 months, when the baby's ability to break down caffeine is still low.

You should schedule the drinking so that by the next feeding the amount in the blood will decrease.

you can consume caffeine and coffee while breastfeeding.

You should initially consume less and time it so that a minimum of the caffeine reaches the milk.

Women drink black beer thinking it will help them produce more milk.

In practice, this is a drink high in sugar.

In a 300 ml glass there are over 100 calories and about 24 grams of sugar, which is equivalent to six teaspoons of sugar.

Black beer, like regular beer, contains a substance derived from the hop plant, which participates in the production of the drink. In animal studies it is found that the substance from the hops increases the level of prolactin, the hormone that is essential for milk production. However, when they checked in a small study women saw that the hops actually lowered the level of prolactin.

there is no scientific proof that blackcurrant increases milk production, maybe the opposite is true. If you like it, you can drink, but keep in mind that this is a high sugar and calorie drink and also that hops have a sedative effect, so you should not consume black beer while taking sleeping pills or if you suffer from depression.

If you are concerned that you are not producing enough milk, the first person to consult is an IBCLC certified lactation consultant.

first advice that breastfeeding women receive is to drink a lot, so that they have enough milk.

When breastfeeding, you need more fluids, because you lose an average of 800 ml of fluids a day through the milk.

And really, the recommendation is to consume 3.8 liters of fluids a day from all sources, with one liter coming from food. So you can round off and say that a woman needs 3 liters when breastfeeding The

amount can of course vary according to your personal data, the weather and physical activity.

It is also true that significant dehydration can lead to a decrease in the amount of milk.

But drinking too much beyond the feeling of thirst will not increase your milk supply, maybe even the opposite.

In a study in which lactating women were forced to drink forcefully beyond the feeling of thirst - not only was there no increase in the production of their milk but a decrease.

while breastfeeding, you should drink more than usual, but not forcefully drink too much.

Drink according to the feeling of thirst, note that the color of the urine will be as light as possible and of course - the recommended drink is water.

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