Can I drink iced drinks while breastfeeding?

The weather in summer is extremely hot. At this time, many people like to eat cold drinks, and may even have an uncontrollable desire. So can I drink ice drinks during breastfeeding? The answer is of course no! During the breastfeeding period, you need to have a very strong self-control ability. Don’t eat whatever you want. You must consider your actual situation and whether it will affect breastfeeding. Let’s explain in detail why you can’t eat cold things during breastfeeding.

A woman's body after childbirth experiences a significant drop in hormone levels, and with the delivery of the newborn and placenta, her metabolism slows down, causing her constitution to change from internal heat to cold. If you eat cold food during breastfeeding, it will make your body even colder, which is not good for replenishing qi and blood, leading to spleen and stomach digestion and absorption dysfunction, and is not conducive to the discharge of lochia and the removal of blood stasis. This is very harmful to women's health, so Chinese medicine advocates that women should not eat cold food during breastfeeding.

From another perspective, raw and cold foods have not been sterilized at high temperatures and may contain bacteria, which can cause gastroenteritis in postpartum women after eating them. This is even more of a burden on their weak spleen and stomach. Therefore, mothers should remember to avoid eating leftovers that have been stored for a long time as much as possible during breastfeeding.

There are many do’s and don’ts in the diet during breastfeeding, which are the experience summarized by our predecessors. It would be irresponsible to your own body to challenge them lightly. For example, during the breastfeeding period in summer, although the weather is hot, you should not be greedy for coolness and eat cold foods such as ice cream. During breastfeeding, you can choose some easily digestible fresh seasonal fruits to increase nutrition and supplement vitamins. In summer, you can eat mung bean soup and tomatoes, or eat some watermelon and fruits to cool off.

Cold foods that you should not eat during breastfeeding:

1. Don’t eat ice cream, and don’t eat too much cold fruits like pears, watermelons, etc.

2. Fruits taken out of the refrigerator cannot be eaten immediately. They must be eaten after the cold air has dissipated.

3. For fruits that are cold in nature, you can cut them into pieces and blanch them in boiling water before eating. Warm reminder: Cold fruits that are not suitable for consumption during breastfeeding include coconut, strawberry, orange, watermelon, persimmon, cantaloupe, mango, orange, etc.

Postpartum women are already deficient in Qi and blood during the lactation period. In order to restore Qi and blood and normal health levels, they should eat more warm and nourishing foods and avoid eating raw food, cold food and other cold things. If the heat is really unbearable, do not eat ice cream, but choose suitable fruits to quench your thirst and eliminate the feeling of heat.