What foods should be avoided during breastfeeding? A mother's diet directly impacts her baby's nutrition, so special attention is crucial.
I. Foods to Avoid During Lactation
1. Spicy and pungent foods. Examples include chives, garlic stems, chili peppers, black pepper, fennel, and alcohol. Lactating mothers should minimize consumption of such stimulating foods, as they can easily pass through breast milk into the baby's system and affect their health. Small amounts of seasonings like pepper or vinegar are acceptable.
2. Pickled meats and fish. While the daily salt intake for adults is generally 4.5–9 grams, nursing mothers should neither avoid salt entirely nor consume excessively salty foods. Excessive salt intake can strain the kidneys and raise blood pressure.
3. Fried foods and high-fat foods. These are difficult to digest, and nursing mothers have weaker digestive capacity. Moreover, much of the nutrition in fried foods is lost during the frying process, making them unhealthy during lactation.
4. Malted milk powder. The malt in malted milk powder inhibits milk secretion in the mammary glands, reducing milk supply and adversely affecting the baby's health.
5. Foods like leeks, malt water, and ginseng. These foods inhibit milk secretion, leading to insufficient breast milk supply.
6. Cold rice. Cold rice can damage the spleen and stomach, impairing digestive function and causing diarrhea. Traditional Chinese medicine holds that "heat moves while cold stagnates"; raw and cold foods easily cause blood stasis, leading to postpartum abdominal pain, retained lochia, and other conditions.
Which fruits should be avoided during lactation?
II. Fruits to Avoid During Lactation
1. Cooling fruits. Most summer fruits are cooling in nature, such as muskmelon, watermelon, cantaloupe, pear, kiwi, mango, and pomelo. Excessive consumption of cooling fruits like watermelon by nursing mothers may cause discomfort in the baby.Additionally, fruits like oranges, grapefruits, and tangerines are rich in vitamin C. These fruits have stimulating properties that may cause symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, or runny nose in babies. However, they are beneficial for lactating mothers to supplement vitamins. Their stimulating effects vary from person to person, with different constitutions reacting differently. Decisions should be made based on individual circumstances.The most suitable fruits for breastfeeding mothers are neutral fruits such as black plums, grapes, apples, peaches, apricots, pineapples,longan, and sugarcane. Among these, apples are the most common and available year-round, making them the safest choice for nursing mothers. Moderate consumption of hawthorn or hawthorn products is also advisable, as hawthorn aids uterine contraction and postpartum lochia discharge, supporting overall recovery.Especially in summer, many people like to chill fruits in the refrigerator before eating them. This is a major no-no for breastfeeding mothers. Eating too many chilled fruits can cause diarrhea not only in the mother but also in the baby. The best approach is to let fruits taken out of the refrigerator sit at room temperature for half an hour before eating them.
The above outlines foods to avoid during breastfeeding. Mothers should keep these in mind.