What foods are good for breastfeeding?

Infants often face various ailments, and it is not so easy for them to let even their closest people know about it. For this reason, young mothers, despite the lack of experience, should take increased care of their children and try to protect them from all kinds of diseases and complaints. Pediatricians note that infants often develop constipation, so care should be taken to ensure the proper functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.

Causes of constipation in breastfed infants

Difficulties with bowel movements usually develop due to serious nutritional disorders of the mother and her baby. The use of potentially dangerous products or inappropriate drugs provokes problems with the gastrointestinal tract in children. A particularly responsible approach is required when choosing iron-containing, antispasmodic and other medications, formula milk, starting complementary feeding and maintaining the baby’s drinking regime.

Infants may also experience various diseases that cause deviations from the norm:

• Dolichosigma. In this case, there is an elongation of the sigmoid colon, which presses on itself and the rectum. The appearance of kinks in organs leads to serious problems during emptying.
• Lactose deficiency. If the baby does not have lactose or there is not enough of it, as a result of which serious problems with going to the toilet appear.

Self-diagnosis is strictly prohibited. For this reason, it is important to take care of consulting with an experienced doctor and identifying the factors causing gastrointestinal disorders.

The main causes of intestinal dysfunction are:

• consumption of foods that solidify feces in children;
• insufficient development of the gastrointestinal tract;
• intestinal diseases;
• transition from breastfeeding to artificial feeding;
• slow functioning of the thyroid gland, resulting in weak production of hormones;
• allergic reactions;
• lack of volume of mother's milk produced;
• a woman taking inappropriate antispasmodics, antibiotics, antidepressants or iron supplements.

Despite such a variety of causes, doctors conduct an examination and determine the exact factor that disrupts the functions of the gastrointestinal tract. Medical care will not only help you understand why the baby experiences physiological or even psychogenic gastrointestinal disorders, but also how best to help the baby. Often, with psychogenic disorders of intestinal function, you should try to maintain a close connection with the baby, so you need to pick him up more often, hug him, stroke him, and cuddle him.

Diet of a nursing mother

The usefulness and nutritional value of breast milk and the health of the baby largely depend on the diet of the nursing mother. At the same time, you don’t need to eat everything and more, this approach is fundamentally wrong, even if the child has already grown up enough and accepts any food in the mother’s diet without problems or allergic reactions. Breast milk should be balanced, and therefore a nursing mother should base her nutrition on the following principles: The completeness of assimilation of consumed foods and a woman’s digestion itself directly depend on the regularity of food consumption. If you limit yourself to sandwiches during the day and eat two servings of dinner in the evening, then there is no question of any balance. During the day, due to lactation, the body gives up its resources, and in the evening it tries to accumulate reserves in anticipation of a future hungry day. Uneven flow of milk, a nervous baby and a spoiled mother's figure will be the natural result of this behavior. Before introducing complementary foods to the child, the young mother should keep a food diary for herself in order to identify the food allergen in time if the child reacts with a rash. You should also avoid uncontrolled consumption of gas-forming products or combinations of products that cause increased gas formation in the intestines. As an option, it is worth consuming special neutralizing food products that will help neutralize the effect of gas formation.

Every nursing mother knows that she needs to carefully monitor her diet.

Symptoms of constipation in newborns

The first and most important question relates to the specifics of the definition of the disease. The main symptom is the absence of stool for 1.5 - 2 days or serious difficulties with defecation. For children under the age of three months, stool 2–4 times a day is optimal, and by one year of age the frequency decreases by almost half.

Children's intestines do not always fully cope with their physiological tasks. The process of digestion and absorption of food is seriously disrupted, so after 24 hours you should be wary. It is important to understand that the correct approach to solving an existing problem allows you to eliminate the problem that has arisen in the shortest possible time.

Difficulties in emptying are caused by very dense feces. In such situations, it is often necessary to change the mother’s diet and ensure compliance with breastfeeding rules.

Signs of abnormal bowel movements in newborns:

• prolonged, compared to the usual norm for a baby, absence of stool;
• defecation, which is difficult and even painful, leads to ineffective pushing, strong screaming or crying;
• dense stool, and in infants it has a viscous consistency;
• passing of feces in small portions.

Such signs should cause increased alertness. In each case, you need to clearly understand how critical the situation is and how best to act. To confirm the suspected diagnosis, it is advisable to consult an experienced doctor.

List of foods that weaken baby's stool

On the first day after giving birth, you will most likely be in the hospital, and there, as a rule, they feed you taking into account all the recommendations. So there is no need to worry about this issue. And the standard of stay in the maternity hospital is days, again during which they feed you, but prohibited products most likely will not be given to you. I drank water after giving birth and gave birth in

In order for a nursing mother to produce milk and have enough for the baby, the woman first of all needs to eat right and adhere to a certain diet. It is advisable to satisfy your appetite as it appears, without waiting for hunger pangs.

It is no secret that a woman’s diet always affects the chemical composition of her milk, because a newborn receives all the same substances and elements that his mother ate the day before. However, sometimes it happens that an unexpected difficulty arises - constipation, and therefore it does not hurt to find out which laxative products during breastfeeding will come to the aid of both the baby and his mother. It’s worth noting right away that although they are conditionally divided into two different categories, essentially any ingredient from the list is suitable for a baby after six months. A situation where an infant suffers from constipation, irregular bowel movements and abdominal pain is far from uncommon. But before you decide on suppositories and special medications, you can try to help your baby in a simpler way. VIDEO ON THE TOPIC: Food: diet for constipation - Dr. Komarovsky

Foods that cause constipation in infants

Difficulties with bowel movements in infants are usually caused by poor nutrition of women. For this reason, it is necessary, first of all, to adjust the menu and try to improve the passage of intestinal masses. This task is actually much easier to cope with than it initially seems.

You can find out what to do if your newborn baby is constipated in our article. Read about medications for abdominal pain in children here.

Why is a child afraid to go to the toilet, read the link

The following foods lead to problems with stool:

• Meat. Red varieties of meat products are especially harmful. It is advisable to avoid fried foods and strong broths. It is advisable to stew lean meat.
• Cereals. Porridge can be combined with fresh vegetable salads, because this option is considered one of the healthiest. It is important to remember that extreme caution is exercised when including water rice on the menu.
• Kefir (first of all, not the freshest drinks). If the child’s body is not ready to fully absorb lactose, any kefir will weaken it.
• Some fruits and berries: quince, persimmon, blueberries, chokeberry, black currant, pomegranate, unripe bananas, sour apples with high iron content, green hard pears. It is important to note that sweet red apples, overripe bananas, and yellow pears often normalize stool.
• Fresh baked goods, muffins, white bread, biscuits and dry cookies, crackers, crackers and biscuits cause gastrointestinal disorders in infants. It should be noted that even ordinary pasta can be the cause of stool retention.
• Mashed potatoes in water also often become a source of problems. To prepare the second, it is recommended to add butter or milk, but only in small quantities.
• Hard-boiled eggs and mushrooms are recommended only in moderation. Their frequent use is highly undesirable.
• Black tea, red wine, mint or grape juice, grain coffee without sugar, cream and milk lead to the strengthening of intestinal masses for several days.

Despite such warnings, one should not be afraid of an overly strict diet. In reality, everything turns out to be individual. Moreover, depending on the degree of freshness of dairy products and the reaction to lactose, the effect can be not only strengthening, but also laxative. In addition, the effect on children's intestines varies even from the variety and degree of ripeness of fruits and vegetables, and the consistency of cooked dishes. It is impossible to know 100% how the baby will perceive this or that food. It is advisable to try different foods and determine what is suitable and what is not.

Lactating women should remember which foods lead to stool retention in babies. To do this, not only follow a diet or switch to proper nutrition, but also take care to carefully keep a food diary. A well-thought-out diet is mandatory, because it must be balanced and varied. It is not necessary to give up almost any dish completely and for a long time, but increased caution will still have to be exercised.

How to properly feed a newborn with breast milk to avoid constipation

Proper feeding of the baby is one of the main requirements. Breastfeeding or mixed feeding involves almost the same approach. The main task is careful monitoring of how the baby eats.

For those babies who are mixed-fed, you should choose the right milk formula. Otherwise, lactation will not improve the situation. For babies who have a tendency to malfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, special mixtures have been developed aimed at improving the functioning of the body and normalizing the intestinal flora.

The amount of food eaten per day is another important aspect. Lack of nutrition or overfeeding of the baby leads to unwanted difficulties. If the baby is full and already refuses to eat, you cannot force him. At the same time, it is undesirable to feed the baby only by the hour and limiting it in time or volume, since this approach can lead to increased appetite, malnutrition and the inability to form feces.

Breast milk meets infants' food and drink needs. At the same time, a bottle-fed baby still needs to be offered a small amount of water, and the importance of this task increases in the hot season. Water should complement nutrition, but it should not replace the baby’s diet. The daily volume of fluid for those who are forced to switch to artificial feeding is 100 - 150 milliliters. The best choice is fresh baby water, since ordinary liquid will lead to fastening due to imperfect functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.

If the baby is prone to defecation disorders, early introduction of complementary foods is undesirable. The gastrointestinal tract must improve before a decision is made regarding a radical change in diet. Subsequently, it is advisable to take care of the very careful introduction of any new products, since each baby reacts to a change in diet in a special way.