foods and drinks to avoid whilst breastfeeding

[jojolou1981]

Hi ladies

I thought there may have been a sticky thread about this or if there has been something in this forum allready and ive missed it i applogise.

i am due around the 26th of October and was hoping to breastfeed, but the net is full of dos and donts of what to eat and drink??

obviously ive not been drinking through this pregnancy of the alcoholic type (apart from the odd one once every blue moon) so i was looking forward to having a drink especially at xmas so was just wondering what the limits are on both food and alcohol please whilst breastfeeding?

P.S if you do have a bit too much to drink over the holiday season i was wondering if we could express some and freeze it a few days before? but again this is another concern of how much can be produced cos once i have expressed i may not be able to provide anymore for baby?

yes im very confused with the whole concept of breastfeeding!!! and hope you ladies can help thanks x

 

[cat lover]

Hi hon. All I avoid is booze and excessive caffeine, but I will have one glass of wine. They say it leaves your system one unit per hour, and many say if you can drive you can BF. Its best to BF then drink so that it has longer to leave your system before you BF again. There is no need to pump and dump, this is a myth, but if you want a few you can use previously expressed milk and you may wish to pump and dump just for comfort. I don't avoid any foods but may be in the wrong on that one. HTH

 

[jojolou1981]

Hi hon. All I avoid is booze and excessive caffeine, but I will have one glass of wine. They say it leaves your system one unit per hour, and many say if you can drive you can BF. Its best to BF then drink so that it has longer to leave your system before you BF again. There is no need to pump and dump, this is a myth, but if you want a few you can use previously expressed milk and you may wish to pump and dump just for comfort. I don't avoid any foods but may be in the wrong on that one. HTH

ah right thanks soo much for the advice hun x

 

[booda]

My midwife said leave about 2 hours after having an alcoholic drink (bearing in mind that one unit of alcohol takes the average person 1 hour to process) so expressing's probably the way to go!
Also she said to me that I probably couldn't express enough until about 4-6 weeks post-partum but I managed to get around 60-80mls out of each boob, enough to skip a feed if i got my timing right with LO's "sleepy time" which is late afternoon into early evening usually!

About foods, I've also done some searching about this and asked midwife - and the reliable responses i've came across say you can try eliminating loads of random things from your diet and some might have coincidental effects whereas most won't make one bit of difference, she also said (which i found highly amusing!) "formula-feeders don't question what the cow was eating!"

Apparently, only things that can get into your blood (such as alcohol and caffeine) get into your milk!

 

[Ozzieshunni]

I've not really avoided any foods while BFing. I do notice drinking fizzy drinks gives LO more wind. I don't drink alcohol much anymore. After 9 months of abstaining from it, half a glass of wine actually makes me sick, lol.

 

[Palestrina]

In general you don't have to avoid any foods at all. You'll need to limit caffeine and alcohol but they don't need to be eliminated. I have my cup of joe in the morning and a glass of wine here and there. You could drink a glass of wine every night if you wanted to but I don't drink much anyway.

Go ahead and eat your favorite foods, the things you missed out on in pregnancy are ok during BF including sushi, blue cheese, brie, runny eggs, deli meats and anything else. Your baby may have some food sensitivities, the most common being dairy and soy so keep an eye out and if he does then you can eliminate.

 

[summer rain]

In the UK there is no advice to limit caffeine; and research has shown it is only after 7 strong cups of coffee or more that minute amounts of caffeine get into your blood, some babies are sensitive to caffeine but if your particular baby doesn't turn out to be; then you don't have to control your caffeine intake. There is a myth that caffeine reduces milk supply; this is not only baseless but some more recent studies have shown caffeine can increase milk supply in some womenxx

 

[jojolou1981]

In general you don't have to avoid any foods at all. You'll need to limit caffeine and alcohol but they don't need to be eliminated. I have my cup of joe in the morning and a glass of wine here and there. You could drink a glass of wine every night if you wanted to but I don't drink much anyway.

Go ahead and eat your favorite foods, the things you missed out on in pregnancy are ok during BF including sushi, blue cheese, brie, runny eggs, deli meats and anything else. Your baby may have some food sensitivities, the most common being dairy and soy so keep an eye out and if he does then you can eliminate.

phhheeeewwwww thanks for your comment thats made me feel soooo much better thanks

 

[mollieplayer]

Oh, I so hope that's true about not limiting caffeine!

What do the rest of you think?

Should I limit my caffeine to one a day or can I have two?

 

[jessie_m]

Obviously you dont want to chug a pot of coffee or 5 energy drinks. My LO is actually pretty sensitive to caffine and spicy foods and stuff like that, so i have to watch what i eat to make sure i dont give her a tummy ache or keep her up at night. Otherwise i'd be able to eat whatever. Just depends on the baby. I do have coffee or the occasional soda in the morning/early afternoon though.

 

[DarlingMe]

Caffeine only comes across at about 1% in BM and like the alcohol metabolizes out. So a cup of coffee with 65 mg, might only end up being s couple mg for LO. but they do metabolize caffeine much slower than adults. LLL says 1-3 weeks to get out of he system with a consistent caffeine drinking mom.

I keep reading chocolate should be avoided b/c of the caffeine issue.