How to increase the fat content of breast milk for a nursing mother?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Breastfeeding is an important milestone in a newborn's development and is worth every effort to breastfeed your baby. However, some unfounded stereotypes that have lived in our country for decades can instill fear and anxiety in a young and inexperienced mother. One of them is about nutrition and how to increase the fat content of breast milk. Let's try to figure out whether its composition can change, what affects it and what fat content it should have.

Breastmilk

Mother's milk is a unique product of its kind, full-fledged analogues of which are hard to find. This is the optimal food for the baby, which meets all his needs. Only mother's milk contains all the trace elements necessary for normal growth and full development.

However,lactating women, the question often arises of whether the child has enough of such nutrition and how to increase the fat content of breast milk if there are few nutritional properties. In order not to worry in vain, you need to figure out how the process of formation of such a product takes place and what affects it.

Lactation

The female body begins to prepare for lactation during pregnancy. This is manifested in the restructuring of the hormonal background and is observed in the appearance of the breast. An increase in the level of the hormone estrogen contributes to the start of the production of another substance - prolactin. This hormone is responsible for lactation. Gradually, its amount in the body increases, and by the time of childbirth, the hormonal picture is already completely transformed and the body is ready to start breastfeeding.

There are many opinions about how to stimulate lactation and what to eat to increase the fat content of breast milk. However, the most pertinent recommendations in which conventional and alternative medicine agree are:

• full-value presence of protein-vitamin and mineral ingredients in the daily diet of a nursing woman;
• compliance with the drinking regime;
• consumption of lactogenic foods and drinks (i.e. those that increase the fat content of milk during breastfeeding).

Influence of hormonal levels

The necessary volume of breast milk begins to be produced by the interaction of two hormones - prolactin and oxytocin. While the first hormone stimulates lactation, the second is responsible for its release fromchest. It is he who is responsible for the activity of endocrine muscle cells located near the alveoli. Oxytocin stimulates the movement of milk through the ducts to the nipple.

Composition of liquid

Breast milk in the female body is produced by the synthesis of lymph and blood. This process does not depend on products that increase the fat content of breast milk. All the necessary substances accumulate during pregnancy. Therefore, the breast fluid has the optimal composition for feeding the baby.

If we consider the chemical composition of mother's milk, we can understand how it depends on the stages of lactation:

1. Colostrum is a highly nutritious fluid that is produced during the first days of breastfeeding.
2. Transitional milk is a less nutritious liquid that begins to be produced 3-5 days after the start of lactation. It contains fewer nutrients. Despite the mother's concerns about how to increase the fat content of breast milk, at this stage the average is 3.5%. Such nutrition fully provides the baby and the baby is full.
3. Mature milk is a liquid of stable composition, it begins to be produced after 2-3 weeks from the start of lactation. It, in turn, is divided into anterior (more liquid) and posterior (dense and viscous).

When a woman begins to express breast fluid into a container, she sees only foremilk. This is where she begins to worry about the thought of how to increase the fat content of breast milk for a nursing mother. She begins to make a lot of efforts to increase the nutritional properties.liquids. However, nature was laid so that the child first drank and then ate. Back milk, which the mother does not observe when pumping and whose fat content reaches an average of 3.8-4%, is very satisfying for the baby.

Home conditions: checking the fat content of breast milk of a nursing mother

How to improve the nutritional quality of the product being developed is a topic for discussion among representatives of traditional and traditional medicine. There are many recipes for enhancing lactation. However, before taking any action, you can try to determine the fat content of mother's milk at home.

Firstly, to understand whether the baby has enough food, it is necessary to observe him. If the child is in a good mood, he has a normal stool, nothing bothers him and the baby takes the breast with pleasure, then the fat content of his mother's milk is enough for him. In this case, you do not have to worry about how to improve the quality of breast milk (increase fat content).

Secondly, to accurately find out the percentage of fat in the breast fluid, you can conduct the following test: express 100 ml of breast milk into a container with a measuring scale and leave for 7 hours at room temperature. During this time, all the fat present in the milk will rise to the top.

After this time, you need to visually evaluate the accumulated layer: 1 mm=1% fat. Normally, the layer thickness should be 4 mm.

Fat in breast milk: how to increase lactation

The diet of a nursing mother is not the main indicatornutritional qualities of milk. However, what a woman eats goes into the baby's stomach. The menu of a woman should be varied and at the same time balanced. There is no need to increase the caloric content of the meals consumed, since the extra calories are likely to remain on the mother's body, and the child may develop problems with the gastrointestinal tract in the form of colic and stool disorders.

A poor diet is also a wrong choice: a woman's physical and psycho-emotional state can suffer from a lack of nutrients. Often the quality of lactation decreases precisely because of stress and bad mood. Therefore, when talking about products that increase the fat content of milk during breastfeeding, one should take into account the dishes that are needed primarily by the mother. A balanced and complete intake of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and other vital nutrients is a prerequisite for effective breastfeeding.

Expert Opinion

Many pediatricians believe that without special need to increase the fat content of breast milk should not be. The desire of a woman to improve the quality of the breast fluid most often leads to malfunctions in the still developing digestive system of the crumbs. In this case, it is much more important to master the basic rules: do not exclude night feeding, give each breast in turn and only at the request of the child. These rules cannot be neglected, since the rationality of lactation, as well as the he alth of the mother and child in the future, depends on their implementation.

Essential Products

But still, what increasesfat content of milk while breastfeeding? The diet of a nursing woman should consist of products that provide the body with all the necessary trace elements. During lactation, the menu must include:

• dairy products;
• cereals;
• vegetables;
• baked fruits and vegetables;
• fresh greens;
• lean fish;
• dietary meat.

Foods that increase lactation and fat content of breast milk include beef liver, walnuts, condensed milk. At the same time, a woman should consume at least 25 grams of butter and 15 grams of vegetable oil (preferably olive oil) daily.

Forbidden foods

In the menu of a nursing woman, the use of sugar and s alt should be minimized, and it is advisable to replace white bread with gray bread. In addition, in no case should be attributed to products that increase the fat content of breast milk or to a he althy and nutritious diet, dishes consisting of:

• legumes (cause increased gas formation and bloating crumbs);
• spicy, bitter and spicy spices (spoils the taste and smell of milk);
• sweets, chocolate, confectionery (cause fermentation in the tummy and can provoke an allergy in the baby);
• citrus (provoke some form of diathesis in an infant);
• fruits, vegetables and berries of rich red color: red apple, watermelon, strawberries, tomatoes (also can be the culprit of various skin rashes in babies);
• seafood(may cause poisoning and allergic reactions);
• mushrooms in all types of cooking;
• marinated and pickled blanks;
• carbonated and alcoholic drinks, strong coffee and tea.

A nursing mother should approach the preparation of her daily diet with the utmost responsibility.

Plants to increase lactation

And what foods increase the fat content of breast milk yet? A special place among herbal products that stimulate lactation is occupied by: cumin, dill, fennel. This should also include dandelion, nettle, rose hips, yarrow, oregano, anise and lemon balm, as well as hazelnut and walnut. From horticultural crops, carrots, radishes and lettuce are used to stimulate lactation. Various infusions and decoctions are prepared from these products. They are consumed in the form of drinks and teas. Such funds help to establish the process of milk production during lactation crises.

Folk remedies

Improve the quality of lactation and increase the fat content of breast milk (reviews of many women testify to this) allow some folk recipes, which are often recommended by pediatricians. Here are some of them:

• Take 100 grams of raisins, dried apricots, figs and walnuts, mix and grind. For 400 grams of dry mix, add 100 grams of honey. The resulting product should be consumed 1 tablespoon before each feeding of the child.
• Black tea brewed in hot milk.
• Walnuts steamed inmilk and insist for an hour. Consume 1 tablespoon before each feeding.
• Freshly squeezed carrot juice, which is often added with fat milk, honey, fruit and berry juices, should be consumed 2-3 times a day.

There are many other recipes for improving lactation, the effect of which is confirmed by centuries of use.

Nutritional supplements - breast milk fortifiers

Many young mothers, in order to increase the nutritional properties of breast milk, begin to use all kinds of industrial fortifiers. Conventionally, they are divided into several subgroups, each of which stimulates lactation in its own way. These are drugs that correct the diet according to:

• protein of animal origin ("Femilak", "Enfa-mama", "Dumil Mama plus", "Olympic", etc.);
• enriched with lactogenic additives (for example, the drug "Milky Way");
• vegetable;
• Dietary supplements ("Leovit nutrio", "Apilactin" and "Laktogon" - preparations created on the basis of royal jelly);
• special vitamin-mineral complexes.

How to understand that the baby has enough mother's milk

In matters of breastfeeding, including the nutritional qualities of mother's milk, it is necessary to focus not on the assumptions of the mother, but on the condition of the baby. If the baby is in a good mood, nothing bothers him, he grows normally and gains weight,Being exclusively breastfed, you do not need to take any measures to increase and improve lactation. In cases where the child is constantly worried, does not grow well and at the same time there is a “syndrome” of dry diapers, this is a clear signal that the baby is not eating enough. In this case, you need to contact the observing pediatrician. However, most often in such cases, doctors recommend sticking to a special diet and regularly eating foods that increase the fat content of breast milk.