Can I eat milk that has swollen overnight?

During the lactation period, especially right after giving birth and during weaning, women are prone to breast engorgement. Many people want to know whether the intestines that have swelled overnight can still be fed to children. What you need to know is that you cannot breastfeed when your breasts are swollen, because the milk produced during this period is not very healthy and has certain adverse effects on the child's development, so it is not recommended to feed it to the baby.

1. What is milk engorgement?

Breast engorgement is caused by too much milk in the breasts or blocked milk ducts, which causes breast swelling and pain. Especially starting from the third day after delivery, the symptoms will be more obvious, mainly manifested as chest pain, breast heat and hardening, some breast sunken, etc. Breast engorgement not only brings pain to mothers, but also has a certain impact on the baby's breastfeeding.

2. Causes of breast swelling

Why does breast engorgement occur? The main reason is that mothers do not know how to breastfeed their babies. For example, some mothers have inverted nipples, which will inevitably affect the baby's milk sucking. The baby cannot suck milk, and the mother does not know what to do. In the end, the mother's breasts become engorged. Some mothers simply give up breastfeeding, which is a pity. In fact, as long as the mother uses the thumbs of both hands to press both sides of the nipples from various angles and pry them outwards to make the nipples protrude, the problem can be solved by doing this once or several times a day. In some cases, it is because the mother has too much milk and the baby cannot suck it all, while in other cases it is because the mother does not breastfeed in time.

3. Prevention of breast engorgement

1. Start breastfeeding as soon as possible. The baby should be allowed to suck the mother's nipple within 15 minutes to 2 hours after birth. The baby should suck frequently, and each nipple should be sucked once every 2 to 3 hours.

2. Each time you feed, both breasts should be emptied, allowing the baby to finish sucking on one side before sucking on the other. If the milk supply from one breast can meet the baby's needs, the milk from the other breast should be expressed using a breast pump.

3. Take good care of your breasts to prevent stopping breastfeeding due to nipple cracking and pain. The care method is very simple. Just squeeze out a little milk and apply it evenly on the nipples after each feeding.

When your milk is swollen, you can do some hot compresses, breast massage, etc. If it is serious, you should see a doctor to prevent mastitis. It is not advisable to take milk-reducing drugs or foods because your baby needs precious breast milk.