Can I take folic acid while breastfeeding?

During pregnancy, pregnant women's needs for various nutrients increase significantly, especially folic acid. If not enough folic acid is supplemented during pregnancy, fetal maldevelopment may occur. Therefore, many pregnant women think that the more folic acid they supplement, the better, and even supplement folic acid during breastfeeding. Is this practice advisable? Let us now listen to what the doctor has to say.

1. No need to supplement folic acid during breastfeeding

Breastfeeding mothers mainly take in various nutrients from their daily diet, paying attention to balancing various nutrients, such as protein, carbohydrates, sugar, fat and various vitamins. These nutrients promote the baby's growth and development through breast milk. Pregnant women should take folic acid tablets in the three months before and three months after pregnancy to maintain the folic acid concentration in the body at a certain level and prevent the occurrence of neural tube defects in the fetal brain. However, there is no need to take folic acid supplements during the breastfeeding period.

2: What nutrients should be supplemented during lactation

During pregnancy, breastfeeding mothers store very little protein in their bodies. During breastfeeding, the need for protein is no lower than during pregnancy, and it has a great impact on milk secretion. Human milk contains 1.1-1.2% protein. If an average of 820g of breast milk is secreted per day, 10g of protein is excreted from the milk. It is estimated that the efficiency of synthesizing these proteins in the body is 80%, so 12.5g of high-quality protein should be provided daily. Many observations have shown that appropriate protein is beneficial to the normal secretion of milk, while severe protein deficiency can affect the protein content in milk.

Well, after reading the above introduction, I believe you have already understood that it is unnecessary to supplement folic acid during breastfeeding. In addition to the protein introduced above, it is also very important to supplement calories and fat during breastfeeding. Many mothers diet excessively to lose weight. This practice is very irresponsible for both the mother and the child. Dieting to lose weight can be considered at least one year after breastfeeding.