9 months without foolishness: About mother’s milk, cherries and vitamin D [COLUMN]

What can you hear in 2021 from midwives in one of the best maternity wards in a large Polish city? “If you eat all these cherries, the child will not leave you alone, it will be such a flatulence”.

Whoever understands how milk is made also knows that this is a myth. A myth that reality shows is doing fine. I heard it from at least three different midwives who were looking in horror at the basket of cherries that my husband had brought to the hospital. And they didn’t seem convinced when I was telling them with a smile that bloating, at best, could be mine.

Mother’s milk is the healthiest food we can give to a baby. It seems that in the XNUMXst century, no midwife, let alone a pediatrician, should have any doubts as to whether or not the mother’s diet affects its composition. Meanwhile, my friends happened to hear similar wisdom about cherries as I do about cherries, even from doctors who they found with their children!

So how is it with this milk? Scientific research clearly shows that the diet of the nursing mother has little influence on its composition. However, a small amount does not mean that none! The components of maternal milk, the amount of which depends on the increased supply in the mother’s body, are vitamins A, D, B1, B6, B12, PP (and B2 and K, but only in women with poor nutritional status, where there are no pregnancy reserves), minerals such as iodine and selenium. The mother’s diet also affects the proportion of PUFA: EFA * fatty acids in the milk.

Therefore, every nursing mother should take care of a balanced diet (not only for the sake of the baby, but above all for herself), in which there is no shortage of vitamins, minerals and unsaturated acids with particular emphasis on two elements – vitamin D and omega-fatty acids. 3. The latter specialists recommend supplementing them because it is easy to find their deficiencies.

Mother’s food is the healthiest food for an infant, providing it with almost all the ingredients necessary for life. The word “almost” was there for a reason. Every breastfeeding mother will see the recommendation on the child’s discharge card from the hospital: Oral administration of vitamin D3 400 j / day. It turns out that this vitamin in mother’s milk (even despite the supplementation of our mother with vitamin D) is not enough for the baby to develop healthily.

After the age of 4, you can start giving your baby vitamin D in capsule form. Order Vitamin D3 for Children 400 IU Terranova.

Every mother wants to provide her baby with the best. Thanks to scientific support and many years of research, we now not only understand how milk is produced during lactation and how the mother’s diet affects it, but we know exactly how to support the child’s development from the first days of life. Therefore, we should not believe the myths that are still doing well, often repeated also by our mothers, whips or aunts “because when they gave birth, they were advised to do so” and let us follow the recommendations of medical societies and WHO.

Coming back to cherries … Don’t be afraid to eat stone fruit, cabbage, beans or peas. Bloating substances do not pass into milk, so if they bloat, it’s only us.