What is the breastfeeding period?
As breast-feeding time the time is called, in which the child drinks mother’s milk at the mother’s breast. Breastfeeding begins immediately after birth. The children are put on as early as possible at the mother’s breast.
On the one hand, this supports the connection to mother and child immediately after birth. On the other hand, the mechanical stimulus of sucking at the breast is extremely important for the mother’s milk production. Especially in the beginning, the attachment to the breast is often unusual for the mother and requires patience. But with time, mother and child get more and more used to it. If you have any questions, you can always contact your midwife.
How long should one ideally breastfeed?
Breast milk is the best food for your child. How long the baby should be optimally breastfed is still controversial. In Germany there is no generally valid recommendation.
It is assumed that exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months is a good diet for healthy, mature children. Depending on how the child develops, it may be necessary to give the child supplementary food before the completed 6th month of life. However, this should not be done before the completed 4th month.
If the child is developing normally, supplemental food should be fed at the latest in the 7th month of life. It is important that with complementary food no immediate weaning is meant, but that additional breastfeeding is done. It has been proven that an exclusive mother’s milk diet in the first 4-6 months of life reduces the risk of the child developing an allergy (atopic form of the disease).
Nutrition
Actually there is no need for a special diet during the lactation period. As in any situation in life, one should eat a balanced and conscious diet. This includes wholemeal products, fresh fruit and vegetables as well as calcium– and iron-rich foods, for example milk and legumes.
Through milk production and the passing on of nutrients to the baby, the mother needs additional calories. Only when the child is slowly weaned does the calorie requirement decrease. In the first four months, the mother needs between 400 and 500 kcal in addition to her normal consumption.
After that, a possible supplementary diet decides on the further requirements. The additional calorie requirement is therefore even greater than during pregnancy. If one eats according to appetite and in a balanced way, additional fat reserves from pregnancy are used up and the body weight decreases.
An additional, strict diet is not recommended, as too few calories can reduce the amount of milk. In addition, enough should be drunk. Alcohol consumed by a nursing mother passes into the baby’s body through the milk and can cause damage.
Therefore, the best recommendation is not to drink alcohol during the breastfeeding period. Alcohol is detectable in breast milk 30-60 minutes after consumption. Especially in the first month after the birth of the child, alcohol should be avoided.
If you still want to drink one or two glasses of alcohol every now and then after that, you should pay attention to a few things. You should breastfeed your baby shortly before drinking alcohol so that the time until the next breastfeeding is as long as possible. As in the mother’s blood, the alcohol content in breast milk decreases with the time elapsed since consumption.
As a rule of thumb, 10g of alcohol is broken down by the body in two hours (1 bottle of beer=12.7g; 1 glass of wine=8.8g alcohol). However, each body breaks down alcohol at a different rate. Eat before you take an alcoholic drink.
If you are unsure whether the alcohol has already been broken down, it is advisable to have milk pumped out beforehand so that you can give it to the child when it is hungry again. Overall, it is possible to drink alcohol occasionally while breastfeeding, but this should be done responsibly and thoughtfully. By definition, a non-alcoholic beer has an alcohol content of less than 0.5% vol.
This means that it is not completely alcohol-free, but the amount is so small that it has no physiological effects on the body. Therefore, it is quite possible to drink a non-alcoholic beer from time to time while breast-feeding. Fruit juices also have a minimal alcohol content due to the natural fermentation process.
Studies have shown that drinking 1.5l of alcohol-free beer within one hour increases the blood alcohol concentration to 0.0024 per thousand. However, this small amount had already been reduced again within the next half hour. Some experts even say that non-alcoholic beer boosts milk production, so they recommend drinking it in moderation.
Caffeine in the breastfeeding period should be consumed with caution, as it passes into breast milk.The child’s body cannot process caffeine as quickly as an adult. It takes about three days. In an infant this can lead to abdominal cramps, restlessness and flatulence.
For this reason, nursing mothers are recommended to consume caffeine moderately, if possible immediately after breastfeeding. In total, no more than 300mg of caffeine should be consumed per day. In comparison, an espresso has about 50mg of caffeine, a cup of filter coffee (125ml) about 80-120mg and 200ml of cola has about 20-50mg of caffeine.
Herbal and black tea should also be consumed with caution, as the caffeine content varies depending on the infusion time. The nicotine of the cigarette and other toxins pass directly into the breast milk. The concentration of nicotine in breast milk is three times higher than in the mother’s blood.
Children of smoking mothers show more frequent restlessness, reduced absorption capacity, colic and vomiting. Heavy smoking can also inhibit the mother’s milk production. Therefore, the best recommendation is not to smoke at all during the breastfeeding period.
However, if the mother does not manage to do so, the question often arises as to whether it is better to stop breastfeeding or to continue breastfeeding despite smoking. In general, it can be said that the baby should still be breastfed because the advantages of breast milk outweigh the disadvantages. A few things should be taken into account to minimize the strain on the baby.
Smoke immediately after breastfeeding, as the highest concentration of nicotine is found in breast milk shortly after smoking, and the time until the next breastfeeding is then greatest. After about 95 minutes only half of the nicotine concentration can be measured. It is best to stop smoking two hours before breastfeeding.
Do not smoke in the home or in the presence of the child and wash your hands afterwards. Try to limit your smoking as much as possible overall. The mother’s body uses 400-500 kcal in addition to the normal calorie consumption through milk production.
A certain decrease in the mother’s fat reservoir is even provided for by nature. The composition and fat content of breast milk is always approximately the same, no matter what the mother has ingested. Therefore the child is usually sufficiently nourished.
If there is a very strong weight loss, however, this can have a negative effect on the amount of milk production. If the mother loses weight, the growth of the baby should therefore always be taken into account. Overall, the mother should not lose more than 500g of weight per week.
If the increased calorie requirement is combined with a healthy and balanced diet, the body often manages to lose excess pounds on its own over time. However, this is different for everyone. Avoid sweets and very high-fat foods and watch your body and your child.
Of course, you may also give in to a possible craving for chocolate while breastfeeding. Like almost everything else, this should always be done in moderation, because chocolate can have a few negative effects. On the one hand, sweets naturally settle on the hips quite quickly and can lead to weight gain.
On the other hand, chocolate also contains caffeine, whose consumption should be limited to 300mg during pregnancy. A 100g bar of dark chocolate contains 90mg of caffeine and a bar of milk chocolate 15mg. With, for example, an additional daily coffee or similar, the 300mg are quickly reached and can lead to restlessness in the infant.
Chocolate is also considered to be a flatulent food that can cause your child’s stomach ache. During pregnancy, raw meat and raw milk cheese are prohibited because of the danger of toxoplasmosis and listeriosis. After the birth of the child, these may be eaten again completely during the breastfeeding period.
The risk of transmission of the above-mentioned diseases to the child through breast milk is unfounded. Tatar and raw ham may now be added to the menu again. The spice cinnamon contains the substance coumarin, which is considered harmful to the liver.
There are thereby two different kinds of Zimt. Ceylon cinnamon contains only small Cumarinkonzentrationen, so that it is considered as harmless. The more inexpensive Cassia cinnamon exhibits however a higher, more precarious concentration of the Cumarins.
The consumer cannot distinguish between the two types. One should not consume more than 0.1mg of coumarin per kilogram of body weight per day. Since this is difficult to control, caution is advised with cinnamon.
During the breastfeeding period one should therefore limit one’s cinnamon consumption. Particularly in the pre-Christmas period one should therefore do without the cinnamon stars.Liquorice should be consumed in small quantities during pregnancy, as the ingredient glycyrrhizinic acid is suspected of increasing blood pressure and, if taken during pregnancy, of causing lasting disruption to the physical and mental development of the child. There is no scientific evidence for the breastfeeding period.
It is therefore recommended to limit the consumption of licorice to 100g per day, as during pregnancy. Furthermore, licorice can change the taste of breast milk and is suspected of causing flatulence in an infant. Also with citrus fruits there are different empirical reports.
More often, a sore bottom is reported in the baby after the maternal intake of, for example, orange juice or lemons. Here too, try out whether your child reacts sensitively and how much citrus fruit is still okay. It is often heard that spicy food can lead to skin irritation and a sore bottom in breastfed children.
However, this has not been scientifically proven, but is based on reports of experiences of breastfeeding mothers. This shows that you are allowed to eat everything that is good for you and your baby. However, if your baby is more restless after a spicy meal or if the skin changes, then skip spicy food and see how the abnormalities change.
So the motto is: try it out and then adjust your eating habits. In principle, you can eat anything that you and your child can tolerate well while breastfeeding. The general statement that children cannot tolerate certain foods through ingestion by the mother and should therefore be avoided is unfounded.
However, there are very sensitive children who react to certain foods with flatulence, stomach aches or sore skin. Often it takes a few tests and some trial and error to find out how well tolerated the food is. Flatulent foods, such as some types of cabbage, can cause intolerance not only in the mother but also in the baby.
These include savoy cabbage, sauerkraut, onions or legumes. Broccoli or kohlrabi are considered to be milder and are therefore well suited as an introduction. If they are well tolerated, other types of cabbage can be tried.
In children, flatulence is often caused by swallowing air and it is difficult to distinguish it from food intolerance. The swallowed air is caused, for example, by an unfavorable breastfeeding method. The so-called “burping” after breastfeeding can help.
More information on this topic: Flatulence during breastfeedingOnions are suspected of causing flatulence in babies. But as almost always, it is said that the dose plays an important role. Not every child reacts in the same way and some children do not mind onions at all, while others react very sensitively. Therefore, it is also said that onions should be tested and the changes observed. Abdominal pain in children can have many reasons, but if there is a connection to onions, it is better to avoid them.
