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Can I drink coffee to nursing mothers?

, medical expert
Last reviewed: 19.10.2021
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Can I drink coffee to nursing mothers? This question is often asked not only by young mothers, but also by all women who can not live a day without coffee. But the main thing you need to know is that coffee when breastfeeding can not only harm the child or mother, but it can also be useful. Therefore, you need to know about all the consequences and negative effects on the child, which can be with the use of coffee during lactation.

Useful properties of coffee during breastfeeding

When you feed your child, he gets all the necessary vitamins and minerals from your breast milk. If you decide to eat a large amount of fruits, vegetables, cereals, meat and dairy products, you supply for your little what you need, and you also support the healthy production of your milk. The drinks you choose should also be nutritious. Drink plenty of water to maintain moisturizing and producing enough breast milk. Caffeinated beverages, including coffee, may have a small place in your diet if your child is not sensitive to such drinks with caffeine.

Coffee is a drink made with the use of coffee beans, which are taken from green berries coffee and roasted, resulting in the formation of brown coffee beans. This drink is loved by many women, including pregnant women, and nursing mothers. Currently, there are no restrictions on the consumption of coffee for most people, but they advise young mothers to breastfeed caffeine consumption. What is useful in coffee?

There are two main factors that could be called the benefits of drinking coffee. The first is associated with its high antioxidant status. Antioxidants are important for health, as they interfere with oxidation of our cells with toxins, chemicals and inflammation. The second factor is the stimulating effect of caffeine, although it also represents potential risk factors if consumed in excessive amounts and for certain people who may be vulnerable to its effects. Coffee, in addition, contains some B vitamins, magnesium and potassium.

When coffee is consumed, it is absorbed into the bloodstream and moves to the brain, where it "triggers" certain neurons that can lead to improved memory, mood, energy and cognitive function if consumed moderately. The benefits of caffeine can then be even greater when it comes to athletic performance, as this can help increase the amount of oxygen consumption during exercise, and also stimulate the nervous system, which can help break down fat deposits and turn them into energy.

In addition, there are a number of other beneficial properties that are associated with coffee consumption. The researchers found that those who consume 1-3 cups of coffee a day have a low risk of developing liver cancer. Another advantage of coffee: the risk of developing gout decreases with increasing coffee consumption.

The use of coffee also proves the fact that Greek coffee, associated with longevity and heart health. Another study showed that women who consume coffee have a lower risk of dying from cancer.

Coffee can prevent damage to the retina due to oxidative stress. Caffeine is not the main reason for this, but chlorogenic acid, which is contained in coffee and is one of the strongest antioxidants, plays a direct role in preventing such pathology.

Black coffee kills bacteria on the teeth that lead to tooth decay. Adding milk or sugar to coffee denies this advantage. Therefore, coffee is a preventive against caries. Coffee can also protect against periodontal disease.

Coffee can protect against melanoma. The risk of melanoma decreases with the consumption of coffee, and this risk decreases with each consumed cup.

Given all this information, you need to say that coffee can be definitely a useful drink, but you need to consider many factors. If you are breastfeeding, the child's reaction to coffee is hard to predict. Therefore, do not immediately attack this drink. But if you regularly used coffee during pregnancy and throughout your life, then do not stop abruptly, because this can only negatively affect the mother and child.

Negative properties when drinking coffee for the period of lactation

What kind of coffee can a nursing mother do and does it affect the health of the child? There are two main types of coffee beans - Arabica and Robusta, and depending on where they are grown, the taste of coffee is determined. For example, Brazilian coffee usually has more taste of chocolate and spice compared to Ethiopian coffee, which has a stronger, sweet flavor of berries. Coffee comes in different forms: whole beans, ground coffee and lyophilized. But, despite the different types of coffee, they all contain caffeine in different amounts.

Caffeine is a stimulant, and everyone reacts differently to it. Caffeine can act as a diuretic, which can lead to the fact that the body produces urine faster. People who are more sensitive to caffeine or drink a lot of caffeinated drinks, sometimes report dizziness, tremors and insomnia as side effects.

Although the caffeine that you eat and drink ends up in the breast milk, most studies show that the amount is less than one percent of what you consume. Simply because caffeine levels in breast milk are low compared to what adults usually consume, does not mean that these amounts are necessarily safe for the baby. How much coffee can a nursing mother do not harm the child? The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than three cups daily or up to 200 mg per day. If you drink more than one cup a day, you need to minimize the amount of coffee in your breast milk by distributing coffee consumption throughout the day. Or, prefer lighter beverages, such as lattes, that contain less caffeine than regular coffee.

It is very unlikely that your child will have any effects on the caffeine that you drink. But if you strongly feel that your child is too restless after you drink coffee, you can try an experiment. Take the caffeine out of your diet for a week and find out if there are any changes in your child's behavior. Then add caffeine to the diet back and see if irritability returns in the baby's behavior.

Studies on breastfeeding suggest that if a mother has a greater amount of caffeine in her diet than a mild one, this can disrupt their sleep. But, we can not be sure that these sleep problems are definitely related to caffeine in their mother's milk, as children often go through the phases of awakening.

The smaller your child, the more time it will take to withdraw caffeine from his body. This is because your baby's liver and kidneys are still immature. However, premature and younger infants metabolize caffeine very slowly and may have serum levels of caffeine and other active metabolites of caffeine similar to those of their mothers. By the time your child is nine months old, he must be able to exclude caffeine from his system at the same speed as you. Therefore, the smaller the child, the more likely that he can have a reaction.

Contraindications to taking coffee are pathologies in the mother, which are accompanied by poor filling of blood vessels. If your mother has a circulatory disorder in the form of Raynaud's syndrome, it is best to avoid eating caffeine. Raynaud's syndrome happens when your blood vessels contract, making your fingers, toes and skin cold, because they get less blood. Possible complications in the use of coffee in such a pathology in the mother - this is a violation of the process of feeding. Caffeine aggravates the narrowing of the blood vessels, making breastfeeding painful and milk flows with great difficulty.

Consumption of coffee more than 450 ml per day can reduce the concentration of iron in breast milk and lead to mild anemia due to iron deficiency in some infants.

If a child shows signs of sensitivity to caffeine after breastfeeding, it may be prudent to reduce the amount of coffee and try to increase it as the child grows up. Nevertheless, moderate intake of caffeine in breastfeeding is absolutely safe.

Influence of caffeine on infants will differ depending on a number of factors.

If you were drinking caffeine during pregnancy, it is likely that your child will be less likely to respond to caffeine intake after birth. However, if you make sure that you did not drink coffee at birth, then your little one can have more reaction to caffeine if you start drinking it after birth. Caffeine can accumulate in infants if their mothers consume large amounts and can cause irritability, insomnia and constipation. Accumulation is due to the child's inability to destroy and exclude caffeine. Preterm or sick children can also have problems due to their inability to metabolize caffeine.

Adult children tend to react less to caffeine than babies under 6 months, so if your child reacts when you drink coffee, wait a few months to see if the baby can cope with it later, a little older. Therefore, the risks of unwanted reactions to a child's coffee depend directly on his age.

Is it possible to soluble coffee for nursing mothers? Different types of coffee have different amounts of caffeine. Brewed coffee is considered stronger, but it contains fewer impurities. Therefore, the mother can drink instant coffee, it is softer and contains less caffeine. But such processing of coffee means the maintenance of different grades of coffee and various additional components. Therefore, sometimes brewed coffee is better, because it is clean and its composition is balanced. Often they are interested in another question: is it possible for nursing mothers to have coffee 3 in 1? Such types of coffee contain different impurities of coffee from different untreated varieties, different types of milk, dyes, which are not very useful for the mother and the baby. Therefore it is better to drink pure natural coffee.

Can a lactating mum be decaffeinated? If the mother can not live a day without coffee, and the child is very excited by the effects of caffeine on his body, then decaffeinated coffee can be an excellent solution. The main beneficial substances in such coffee are hydrocinnamic acids and polyphenols. Other minor elements include potassium, recommended daily intake of magnesium, niacin or vitamin B3. Therefore, mothers can drink decaffeinated coffee while feeding the baby.

Caffeine is not only found in coffee, but also in tea, soda, chocolate and even some medicines that relieve headaches. In this regard, many mothers are interested in whether it is possible for a breastfeeding mother to have chocolate? Chocolate, especially black, contains a fairly high amount of caffeine. Therefore, it is necessary to limit not only coffee, but also chocolate, when your child becomes restless.

Cocoa and chicory can be drunk to nursing mothers, as an alternative if the child reacts badly to caffeine. But it should be remembered that, although to a lesser extent, these drinks can have a stimulating effect, so you need to approach this issue very individually.

Therefore, for moms who regularly drank coffee, there is no great need to limit themselves. If the child has symptoms of anxiety and you are sure that the cause is caffeine, then only you can take some measures.

There are several ways to reduce caffeine stimulation:

  1. limiting caffeine intake when breastfeeding;
  2. consumption of coffee during the day in small portions with the exception of coffee in the afternoon;
  3. Breastfeeding before the "coffee drinking" or an hour after taking caffeine;
  4. monitoring of the child's reaction to caffeine;
  5. You can also take a few glasses of water after consuming caffeine to dilute its effect in the body.

Whether it is possible to drink green coffee to nursing mothers and whether this kind of advantage is in front of ordinary coffee. The extract of green coffee beans is a natural product made from unroasted coffee beans. Green coffee is used as an herbal homeopathic product to lower blood pressure and promote weight loss. The extract of green coffee beans, which is supplied in dosage forms, contains caffeine. The higher the dosage, the more effective it is with lowering blood pressure, and the more caffeine is contained. This caffeine in the same way passes through breast milk to the baby. The infant receives 0.06-1.5% of the maternal dose of caffeine through breast milk. Therefore, green coffee properties are no different from black coffee and you can use it if you drink ordinary coffee. But it should be noted that the instruction does not indicate that it can be used when feeding. Therefore, you can try to take it at your own peril and risk.

Can a nursing mother have coffee with milk or cream? The amount of caffeine does not decrease with the addition of cream, which should be remembered. And cream or milk can cause the baby to be allergic or intolerant. Therefore, it is better to abandon such a drink. But if you eat dairy products on a daily basis, then do not worry about allergies and you can drink coffee with cream.

Reviews of nursing moms regarding the behavior of the baby against the background of drinking coffee are very different. Everything is very individual, so there are children whose mothers actively drink coffee and babies do not bother. Therefore, you do not need to focus on others, but rather try it yourself.

Nursing mothers can eat and drink a variety of foods, including coffee. The main rule in this case is to monitor the reaction of the child, and if there are no changes, you can drink coffee, but in moderation. If you can not live without coffee, and your child does not tolerate it, then an alternative can always be decaffeinated coffee.

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