Healthy Habits: Food Items to avoid while Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding can be the best gift that any mom can give to their babies. Breastfeeding is so precious and most moms are proud of their experience with the babies. They are proud as moms who gave the best gift for their kids with lot of sacrifices. However, breastfeeding is not that easy and smooth. If you breastfeed your kid, then you need to take care of your food intake too. While healthy food choices are always a must, you need to know the food that should avoid during breastfeeding.

Many nursing moms think that they can eat whatever they like. It is true that strong flavors in the food may change the taste of breast milk, but most babies are found to enjoy different flavors in the breast milk. Some dominant flavors of diet such as soy sauce or chili peppers were in the amniotic fluid and fetuses swallow a good amount of fluid before birth. So, they easily adapt to those flavors in your breast milk.

Babies may be fussy at the breast or gassy when you eat a specific food. If you find the pattern, avoid that particular food for a few days. To ensure whether that food was the real cause, have it once and see if there is an effect on your baby.

Foods to avoid

Mothers claim that their babies most often object to breast milk after they have these foods;

• Chocolate
• Citrus fruits and their juices such as limes, lemons, oranges and grapefruit
• Spices like garlic, cinnamon, chili pepper and curry
• Fruits like strawberry, pineapple and kiwifruit
• Gassy vegetables like cabbage, onion, cauliflower, cucumber, garlic and broccoli.
• Fruits that have laxative effect such as prunes and cherries

Breastfeeding mothers can take one or two cup of coffee in a day but taking too much caffeine can interfere with your infant’s sleep or make her fussy. Caffeine is also present in some sodas, teas and OTC medicines. Alcohol is another important drink that you should avoid while breastfeeding. Occasional alcohol drink is fine but having more than one drink can increase your blood level to the point that alcohol gets into the milk.

Above are some the food that you should avoid during the breastfeeding period. I hope these tips are helpful for you to enjoy successful breastfeeding time with your infant!

About the Author:

Amila Wickramarachchi is a mom who breastfed her kid for more than 2 years. She is also a blogger and writes Diary of a New Mom which is a Parenting and lifestyle blog.