Can You Eat Cabbage While Breastfeeding? Benefits, Myths

During breastfeeding, mothers are especially careful about their diet. Diets for nursing mothers have long since sunk into oblivion, but concerns about the consumption of certain products are still relevant. Cabbage is an essential product that is part of the main dishes of many countries cuisine.

Can nursing mothers eat this vegetable? Or will they have to drastically revise their usual menu? Will the baby suffer from colic if the mother eats borscht? Or will increased gas formation not affect the infant? Let’s dot the i’s and cross the t’s.

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Can you eat cabbage while breastfeeding?

Before we deprive poor cabbage and prevent it from being included in a nursing mother’s diet, let’s figure out how breast milk is produced.

Food products that enter a woman’s body go a long way before reaching the baby. In the gastrointestinal tract, food breaks down into individual components and is absorbed into the blood through the mucous membranes.

The next stop is the liver. There, the blood is cleansed of harmful substances, after which it rushes to the mammary glands.

Then the work is intercepted by special glandular cells – lactocytes. They absorb nutrients, vitamins and microelements from the blood and lymph, forming milk that will go to the baby.

Thus, if the mother eats borscht, the child will not receive this dish in its original form. Before reaching the mammary glands, food components undergo a number of changes, and the composition of breast milk will be absolutely individual and unpredictable.

Interesting fact!

A study was conducted where breastfeeding mothers consumed chicken eggs, after which the presence of chicken egg protein in breast milk was checked. It turned out that 25% of women do not secrete chicken egg protein into milk at all.

What do mothers fear most when eating cabbage? Increased gas formation and colic in the baby. Indeed, white cabbage often leads to fermentation and flatulence when digested. But these processes occur in the mother’s intestines. They are not transmitted to the infant with milk.

There is no reliable evidence that certain foods cause increased gas formation in a baby. If a mother eats cabbage, legumes and other gas-forming foods, but does not suffer from bloating herself, then they will not affect the baby in any way. Therefore, there is no need to exclude cabbage from the diet.

Another point is if the vegetable causes flatulence and brings discomfort to the mother herself. Then it makes sense to limit the consumption of cabbage.

The immature gastrointestinal tract of a child can be sensitive to absolutely any product. Cabbage is neither the rule nor the exception. The best way to successfully determine which products your baby reacts negatively to is to keep a food diary. Allergic reactions most often manifest themselves in the form of skin rashes or changes in stool. These are the ones that should be monitored in order to make sure that a particular product has an adverse effect on the child’s well-being.

Table 1. Example of a food diary

Date	Meal time	Products, dishes, drinks	General condition of the child	Baby skin	Baby’s stool
			Note if there are any changes: tummy pain (colic), tearfulness, anxiety, etc.	Note if anything new appears, such as redness, rash, etc.	Note if there is anything unusual: stools become more frequent, mucus, greenery, etc.

Cauliflower during breastfeeding: benefits or harm?

Cauliflower is an excellent product for a nursing mother’s diet. Compared to white cabbage, it contains more protein, vitamins and minerals. In addition, cauliflower is low in calories, extremely rarely causes allergic reactions and less often contributes to gas formation.

When a baby starts to be introduced to complementary foods, pediatricians recommend this vegetable among the first, along with zucchini and broccoli. This confirms its beneficial properties and safety of consumption during breastfeeding.

It is necessary to take into account some nuances in the preparation of cauliflower so that it does not harm the nursing mother and the baby.

A fresh vegetable has a dense structure, uniform green leaves, and no dark inclusions or yellowish spots on the surface. First, you need to separate the cabbage into florets and wash them thoroughly. After that, the product is boiled or baked in the oven, and then you can experiment with dishes. Cauliflower is added to cream soup, meat stew or vegetable sauté. And if you pour the vegetable with cream sauce and sprinkle with herbs, you will get a delicious snack.

Important!

A nursing mother should not eat raw inflorescences, and it is also better to avoid frying cabbage.

Seaweed during breastfeeding: who shouldn’t eat it?

Seaweed is a storehouse of useful substances necessary for a nursing mother for postpartum recovery. It is rich in iodine, iron, calcium, magnesium and sodium, and also contains vitamin A, B vitamins, vitamins PP and C.

The dietary fibers of seaweed swell in the intestines and stimulate the mucous membranes. This improves peristalsis and prevents gas formation. After childbirth, a woman experiences a number of difficulties with going to the toilet, so this type of cabbage becomes an excellent preventative for constipation, relieving the mother of the need to push hard.

In addition, seaweed very rarely causes adverse reactions in infants. This product is not recommended for use during breastfeeding if the nursing mother has an allergy to seafood. Even if the reaction has been mild recently. Women with thyrotoxicosis and an allergy to iodine should also refrain from seaweed.

The best type of seaweed for nursing mothers is frozen or dried seaweed. Store-bought salads and pickled products contain a lot of preservatives, salt and vinegar, which can affect the taste of milk and lead to the baby refusing to breastfeed.

Important!

When choosing seaweed, pay attention to the place where it was collected. Laminaria easily absorbs all surrounding substances, therefore, in addition to useful microelements, it can contain many chemicals or radioactive substances.

How to cook cabbage while breastfeeding?

Of course, if you eat cabbage raw, it will allow you to preserve the maximum of its beneficial properties. But digestive disorders caused by eating cruciferous vegetables are due to the presence of carbohydrates, which do not completely break down in the digestive tract and cause gas formation. Cooking these vegetables allows you to solve this problem.

Stewed cabbage during breastfeeding will minimize the likelihood of flatulence. This dish is often included in the menu in the maternity hospital, which confirms its safety for the nursing mother and baby.

Thus, you can eat cabbage while breastfeeding. Don’t be afraid of outdated and unfounded myths. Cabbage should be added to dishes under the supervision of the baby’s well-being. This is the only rule that applies to all products in the diet of a nursing mother.