Can cookies be eaten by a breastfeeding mom?

Pregnancy and breastfeeding are periods in a woman's life that teach her to be very careful in choosing food products. After all, everything that a mother eats is considered nutrition for her baby, and therefore, it necessarily affects his health and well-being. But if during pregnancy a woman does not see the results of her "wrong" diet, then during lactation, culinary delights immediately become visible on the baby's cheeks, affect his digestion, which causes a lot of anxiety and concern not only for the baby on breastfeeding, but also for the new mother herself. It is not surprising that young mothers from all sides are bombarded with questions of this kind: what fruits can be eaten during lactation, are sweet desserts dangerous, can a nursing mother eat cookies, and many others.

Entire opuses can be devoted to the nutrition of a nursing mother, in which all the nuances that can cause inconvenience and anxiety to the baby will be taken into account. But today we will try to analyze in detail just one pressing issue concerning the choice of cookies for a mother during lactation, because sometimes she wants to treat herself to a certain variety of products and dishes on the table.

Baking and sweets while breastfeeding

In order for a young mother to have a lot of milk and make it as healthy as possible, a woman's diet should be complete and varied. Unfortunately, some healthy foods are prohibited during lactation. These are legumes, vegetables with a bitter and spicy taste, citrus fruits, berries and red fruits, seafood, alcoholic and carbonated drinks, smoked foods, marinades, mayonnaise, etc. There is also a place in this list for baked goods and sweets, which include cookies.

The fact is that the immature body of a child, many of whose systems are still in the final stage of formation, reacts somewhat differently to the food that is familiar to us. Spicy dishes give breast milk a bitter taste, which is why the baby may refuse the breast. Seafood and red berries or fruits, as well as sweets with dyes and flavors, can cause diathesis (an allergic reaction manifested by the appearance of red itchy spots on the cheeks, which can become inflamed and cause great discomfort to the baby).

Legumes, fast food, mushrooms, smoked meats, pickles, marinades, soda and other non-childish products consumed by a nursing mother cause bloating in the baby, increased gas formation and colic in the intestines, which results in crying of the baby and sleepless nights for the mother. As for baked goods and sweet products, the result of their consumption can be a "complex" effect, when diathesis on the cheeks is combined with digestive problems. After all, sugar is a substance that provokes fermentation processes in the intestines. And even an adult can experience some discomfort in the stomach while eating sweets, let alone a baby.

But let's figure out what cookies are and how their consumption by a mother can affect the baby's well-being. Cookies are one of the types of confectionery products that undergo baking. In addition to flour, salt and sugar, store-bought cookies can also contain margarine, flavorings, dyes and other components that are unsuitable for a child's body. It is clear that such a product composition can lead to allergic reactions and gastrointestinal problems in a child, which usually come down to increased gas formation ("gas") and intestinal pain (colic).

But cookies are usually used to refer to a whole range of nutritious carbohydrate products made from flour. Products may differ in the composition of ingredients, taste, and appearance. Not all cookies can be classified as sweet products, just as sweet cookies may differ in the amount of sugar used in the recipe, additives in the form of creams, jam, chocolate grains, pieces of candied fruit, etc.

In other words, cookies can be used to refer to sweet, salty, and lean baked goods of short “growth” and small size.

Considering the wide range of cookies in stores and a ton of recipes for homemade baked goods, which, despite the absence of harmful components, are not always considered healthy during breastfeeding, it is difficult to speak in general terms about whether a nursing mother can eat cookies or not. You can spend a long time sorting through different cookie options and discarding unhealthy baked goods. But you can do otherwise and consider those options that are allowed during breastfeeding, and those that most often appear in the questions of young mothers.

What kind of cookies can a nursing mother eat?

Before considering this pressing issue, let's see what doctors themselves say about carbohydrate nutrition for nursing mothers. Sweet pastries and cookies can be considered the main source of carbohydrates, and therefore energy, so necessary for a woman whose body still continues to work for two, producing natural nutrition for the baby. But a young mother, immensely concerned about the health and development of her newborn child, is forced to think not only about herself, but also about the child she feeds with her milk. The composition of such a valuable product as breast milk depends on her diet.

Newborn babies are very delicate creatures who, despite the tenacity and strength of their fingers, have a very sensitive body that reacts sharply to the quality of products that are the source of breast milk and various changes in the diet of the nursing mother. The immune and digestive systems of the infant are considered to be the most sensitive to the composition of the food. Therefore, in the first months of the child's life, the diet of the nursing mother should consist only of healthy hypoallergenic balanced products. And, according to doctors, cookies do not belong to such food products.

For the first time, a mother is recommended to "try" cookies 3 months after the start of breastfeeding. If the baby has previously had negative reactions to other, less safe products in the diet of a nursing mother, then you will have to endure longer (4-5 months). Moreover, sweet varieties of cookies, pastries with jams and cream can be eaten only six months after childbirth, and in strictly limited quantities. But again, if the child's body reacts normally to such innovations.

Before trying to introduce this or that cookie into the menu, you need to carefully study its composition. It is better if it is homemade baking, which means that the nursing mother will know for sure that the finished product does not contain components that can harm her child. And we are not only talking about flavors, preservatives or colorings. The list of prohibited products also includes mayonnaise and margarine, which are often the main cause of colic in a breastfed baby. And store-bought baked goods often contain these components, even when butter is cleaned in the list of ingredients, because there is no strict control over compliance with GOST, as in the Soviet Union.

The easiest for the mother's body, and therefore for her child, to digest are lean cookies that do not contain fat or a lot of sugar. These are the cookies that can be tried first as "complementary feeding", which actually does not affect the properties of mother's milk.

But it's not just about what kind of cookies a nursing mother can have and which ones she should avoid. A responsible, standardized approach to including unusual dishes and products for the baby in a woman's diet during lactation is also important. It is important to understand that any innovations, including new products in a nursing mother's diet, should be practiced according to the principle of "being careful never hurts." For the first time, one or two pieces of lean (dry, biscuit) cookies are enough, and then you will need to observe the child for a couple more days to understand how the "new dish" will affect his well-being.

If the child has no allergic reactions or digestive problems during this time, you can already increase the carbohydrate intake, i.e. eat not a couple of pieces of cookies, but a couple of pieces or more, but in the first half of the day. During the day, you will need to watch the baby carefully to understand how his body reacts to the increase in the volume of unfamiliar food. If suspicious symptoms appear, then it is too early to introduce changes to the nursing mother's diet.

But fatty shortbread cookies will be taboo for a long time, as well as baked goods with jams or cream, and especially with chocolate. As for chocolate candies and chocolate, remember that this product can be given to a child no earlier than 3 years old, because chocolate has a stimulating effect on the child's immature nervous system, which results in sleep disorders and other behavioral deviations.

Here are how many different nuances need to be taken into account to answer the question of whether a nursing mother can have cookies. Moreover, no one will give a clear answer to this question. It should be considered in each specific case, taking into account the pediatrician's opinion on the child's body's reaction to changes in the composition of milk.

How to choose cookies for a nursing mother?

We will dedicate this section of our article to the questions of young mothers who, fearing for the health of their children, are afraid to eat a delicacy familiar from childhood. You should not deny yourself the pleasure of getting energy from cookies, you just need to decide on the types of baked goods that pediatricians do not prohibit eating during breastfeeding.

What are the most common questions that young mothers ask:

• Can a nursing mother eat oatmeal cookies?

Oatmeal is one of the healthiest and easiest to digest cereal dishes, which is included in many dietary tables and is very useful for nursing mothers. And this is not surprising because oats are a storehouse of useful vitamins (A, E, PP, biotin, B vitamins) and microelements (magnesium, calcium, chromium, silicon, potassium, phosphorus and many others). Moreover, it is also valued for its high fiber content, which promotes better digestion and absorption of food, as well as enzymes that facilitate carbohydrate metabolism. Thus, we can say that oats in various dishes will help improve digestion, which is important for pregnant women and nursing mothers, who usually have problems with this.

Once, smart people came up with the idea of using oat flour in cookies along with wheat flour, which not only gave the baked goods a unique, attractive taste, but also made them even more useful. We can talk about the benefits of oatmeal cookies for a long time, but our question is different: can such a delicacy be eaten while breastfeeding, because the composition of the cookies is not limited to just one or two types of flour.

What else is included in oatmeal cookies? According to different recipes, different ingredients are added to the dough. For example, butter or margarine, sour cream, eggs, salt and sugar. Or butter (margarine), molasses (or jam), milk, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla and salt.

There are quite a lot of recipes for making oatmeal cookies today, as evidenced by the variety of flavors of this pastry from different manufacturers. But be that as it may, the cookies contain safe components, if you do not take into account the relatively small amount of margarine. It is this fat of dubious quality that can cause bloating and colic in babies.

If the cookies are made with butter, there is nothing to worry about, you can safely try to gradually include such cookies in the diet of a nursing mother when the baby is 2-3 months old. It would be good if the cookies were not too sweet.

• Can a nursing mother eat biscuits?

Biscuit cookies are a special type of baked goods that fall into the category of dietary products. The peculiarity of this type of cookies is the low fat content, and high-quality natural fats are used (vegetable or butter). Quite often, cookies are baked in water, which further facilitates their digestibility and reduces caloric content.

What else can biscuits contain? Milk (instead of water), flour, sugar, starch, soda, sometimes an egg. All these are natural, safe, hypoallergenic products, and it’s no wonder that biscuits are one of the first things that can be offered to small children to expand their diet.

Doctors also recommend these cookies to nursing mothers. Crispy thin pastries with low sugar content are perfect for breakfast or snacks with tea or milk.

It is important to understand that biscuit cookies are a generalized name for small molded baked goods with low fat content and no yeast. Cookie recipes may differ, which affects the taste of the product. During lactation, preference should be given to cookies prepared according to traditional recipes from natural ingredients without various delicacies and additives.

• Can a nursing mother eat Maria cookies?

There is probably no point in dwelling on this issue for long, because "Maria" is the name of one of the recipes for biscuit cookies. It can be called a traditional recipe consisting of flour, starch, butter, sugar, milk and soda. Of course, such cookies will be a suitable option for a young mother who cares about the health and well-being of her baby, because "Maria" cookies will bring only useful substances to mother's milk.

Cookies with names like "Protracted", "Zoological", "Napoleon", "Letters", etc. have a similar composition. These types of cookies can be introduced into the diet of a nursing mother as early as 1.5-2 months after birth, if the baby is healthy and has no digestive problems or allergic reactions.

• Can a nursing mother eat shortbread cookies?

As for shortbread cookies, the answer will be ambiguous, especially considering that this name hides many varieties and names of baked goods, differing in fat and sugar content. As for fatty crumbly cookies, this is definitely not the product that should be consumed during lactation. The same can be said about sweet baked goods and cookies with sugar (with a sweet crust), sandwich cookies with a layer of sweet fatty cream, baked goods with store-bought jams stuffed with dyes.

Well, with sugar and fillers everything is clear, sweet dishes and chemical additives can provoke the appearance of red spots on children's cheeks, which will be evidence of an allergic reaction to sweets and unnecessary for the body. And what does fat have to do with it? But aren't they considered heavy components in dishes?

It should be said that sometimes it is not even the quantity of fat that matters, but its quality. Fatty crumbly cookies are most often made on the basis of margarine, which, as we know, is harmful to children. True, there are also such types of cookies, the fat content of which is relatively small, and it can be noticed with natural butter. Perhaps, in terms of taste, they are inferior to margarine-based delicate crumbly delights, but they are safer.

Of course, there is no need to rush to introduce such cookies into the diet. Let the baby's body and digestive system get stronger, and when the baby is 4-5 months old, mom can try to enjoy shortbread cookies with butter.

• Can a nursing mother eat Yubileiny cookies?

First, let's figure out what kind of cookie this is with a beautiful name. It turns out that this is a type of shortbread cookie with more than a hundred years of experience, familiar to us from childhood under various names. This is not a crumbly product with a high margarine content, but baked goods on butter (sometimes they use butter margarine) and milk, and the amount of fat in it is close to that of biscuit cookies.

What is the composition of the cookies? According to the information on the Internet, the standard cookies contain: wheat flour, starch, powdered sugar and inert syrup (the same sugar), butter (margarine), milk, egg, salt, baking powder. The cookies taste sweeter than biscuits, and more crumbly, although they remain quite dense.

If such cookies are made with butter, a nursing mother can gradually introduce them into her diet after biscuits and oatmeal. But it is better to refuse cookies with margarine.

• Can a nursing mother eat baked milk cookies?

Baked goods with this name are a favorite treat of many women, despite the fact that these cookies belong to the shortbread category, which means they have a fairly high calorie content. The aroma of baked milk gives ordinary shortbread cookies a special charm that attracts more and more fans. And it will be very difficult to give up your favorite dish for a long time during lactation.

If a mother has gained extra weight during pregnancy and the beginning of breastfeeding, she will have to endure it for quite a long time, because shortbread cookies cannot be classified as healthy products for a baby, and for her, these are extra pounds to those she already has. But with normal weight, you can try eating cookies in small portions after 3 months of breastfeeding (no more than 2 pieces per day).

The composition of the baked milk cookies is similar to the Yubileiny cookies. If they are made with butter, without mayonnaise or flavoring, a couple of cookies will not cause any harm. But store-bought cookies most often contain all these bad components, and butter is often replaced with spread or margarine (the child will not benefit from either). Therefore, pediatricians and nurses who help them do not advise nursing mothers to eat cookies with the smell of baked milk, unless they are made at home according to a safe recipe.

• Can a nursing mother eat sesame cookies?

It should be said that not only the cookies themselves, but also various fillings to them can cause suspicion in young mothers. What if these small grains on the surface or inside the cookies turn out to be allergens and cause diathesis in the beloved child or become an obstacle to normal digestion in the baby?

This is exactly how nursing mothers look suspiciously at sesame, which is often included in sweet and salty baked goods. But now we will talk about cookies with sesame.

As for the sesame seeds themselves, there is nothing to worry about. Sesame is a healthy dietary product, which can also stimulate lactation. It contains a large amount of calcium, which enters breast milk and promotes the normal development and growth of bone tissue, teeth, nails, and hair of the baby. Sesame is also useful for the brain, blood vessels, and the immune system (it is a natural immunostimulant). A woman during lactation is even recommended to eat 1 teaspoon of lightly roasted sesame seeds per day.

But let's get back to our cookies. In the store you can find various types of cookies flavored with sesame seeds. These are multigrain cookies, which also contain sunflower seeds and flax seeds, "Karapuz" cookies, "Oatmeal with sesame", cookies made from puff pastry (a heavy type of baking, not suitable for mothers) and some others.

It must be said that sesame increases the value of any baked goods. The only thing left to do is to choose the cookies themselves. If these are multi-grain biscuits that do not contain peanuts (a known allergen) or oatmeal cookies, they will only be beneficial. But if you read the recipe for cookies with the cute children's name "Karapuz", which do not contain fat, but do contain flavors (even if they are identical to natural ones), you will wonder whether such cookies will be useful for a child or whether it is better to buy special children's cookies ("Malyshok", "Heinz", etc.) or "Maria", and sprinkle them with sesame before eating.

Ideally, delicious cookies with sesame, sunflower and flax seeds can be baked independently, and they certainly will not harm the baby, even if the mother eats not 2, but 4-5 cookies a day.

• Can a nursing mother eat poppy seed cookies?

There is probably no point in repeating about choosing safe cookies for the hundredth time. Let's talk about such an additional flavor component as poppy seeds, which have been used in baking for centuries.

Many mothers have unpleasant associations with the word "poppy", but let us say right away that dry ripe poppy seeds used in baking have nothing to do with the narcotic effect of poppy milk obtained from unripe seeds. There is nothing to worry about in this regard.

Ripe poppy seeds are a valuable food product with a rich composition of useful microelements, also containing easily digestible protein and calcium - the building material of living cells and bones of the body. These components are especially valuable in breast milk. So, if the child is healthy, has no tendency to allergies and digestive disorders, lean or not very fatty and moderately sweet pastries with poppy seeds in the diet of a nursing mother will not harm him. But if the child is prone to allergies and constipation, a caring mother will have to refuse confectionery with poppy seeds. This is the opinion of allergists and pediatricians.

• Can a nursing mother eat fructose cookies?

Often, mothers experience such a nuisance during pregnancy. During the next blood test, an elevated glucose level is detected, and the doctor diagnoses "gestational diabetes". This is a temporary phenomenon that usually disappears after childbirth if the pregnant woman follows a hypoglycemic diet. If the sugar level has not stabilized or everything has returned to normal, but the young mother is still afraid of a relapse, the question of eating sweet cookies is not raised. They remain prohibited.

But sometimes a nursing mother wants to treat herself to something tasty and sweet, her mouth just starts watering at the sight of cookies and sweets. Products with sugar substitutes, which are usually collected in specialized departments of stores, come to the aid of such women.

One of the safest natural sugar substitutes is fructose, which is added to cookies for diabetics. It is clear that such low-fat cookies without sugar will be considered dietary and are quite suitable for diversifying the diet of a nursing mother. The main thing is that the child or his mother does not have a hereditary disease associated with fructose intolerance.

In principle, if a nursing mother really wants something sweet, then jams, preserves and other sweets with fructose, which are produced for diabetics, will come to the rescue. A spoonful of such jam or candy is unlikely to harm a breastfed baby, and the nursing mother will become calmer and will not suffer from "sugar hunger".

• Can a nursing mother eat salty cookies?

So far we have been talking mostly about all sorts of sweets and sweet cookies. But they are not the only thing on earth. The confectionery industry now produces many types of unsweetened baked goods. Take the same multigrain cookies or salted crackers.

As for crackers, many of them do have a salty taste, but this taste is given to them by salt, not by flavor additives, as in instant noodles. Another thing is that a cracker is a rather fatty cookie, which is prepared using butter and milk in decent quantities, it is not for nothing that the cookies even feel oily to the touch. And fatty dishes in the mother's diet can cause problems in the still weak gastrointestinal tract of the baby, and most often in the form of intestinal colic and constipation, which are considered one of the biggest troubles.

It is clear that one or two small salted crackers a day in the menu of a nursing mother will not greatly affect the composition of breast milk and will not harm the child for 3 months or more. But if the baby has already had serious problems with digestion, then it is better to be careful with crackers, and even permitted biscuits. Even homemade baked goods may be prohibited if the doctor insists on it.

But all this can be lived through calmly, replacing sweet or salty pastries with hypoallergenic fruits, cottage cheese, lean meat, vegetables and healthy dishes from them. At least, cookies have never been considered a product of prime necessity and did not have great vital importance.

If you look closely, you will notice that there is practically no such thing as prohibited cookies. The restrictions mainly concern cookies made with margarine and its too sweet or fatty varieties, as well as various additives in the form of yeast, chocolate, flavorings, candied fruits, etc. Even coconut cookies, if the child is not allergic to coconut flakes, are not a contraindication, although you should not get carried away with them (the norm for coconut flakes in the diet of a nursing woman is no more than 30g).

So, there are no strict prohibitions, because cookies are not a poisonous or toxic product. It's just that the possibilities of a nursing mother consuming one or another type of cookie largely depend on the characteristics of the child's body, the development of its digestive system and the coordination of its immune system. For some babies, dry cookies eaten by the mother in small quantities do not harm even in the first month of life. Confirmation of this can be found on forums where young mothers share their secrets and achievements.

Many mothers still follow the advice of our grandmothers, who believed that a nursing mother should eat everything so that her nutrition and the nutrition of the child are complete. And, it must be said, many succeed without great losses. A couple of red pimples on the cheeks and a couple of sleepless nights due to constant crying caused by colic are the usual result of overindulging in cookies. And then, according to reviews, everything gradually returns to normal.

Those who do not want their baby to suffer even for a short time, start with biscuit and oatmeal cookies, then expand their diet, but do it gradually, starting from 2-4 months of the baby's life. First, a piece of cookie, every other day a whole cookie, after a week - 2-3 cookies. And all this with careful observation of the baby's condition. There are no suspicious symptoms (red cheeks, loose stools or lack thereof, anxiety, etc.), which means you can safely introduce new types of cookies into the diet. But you need to know when to stop, because even a strong stomach can be torn off if you actively eat fatty cookies with margarine or even biscuits in large quantities.

Readers are also interested in the question of whether a nursing mother can eat cookies. A nursing mother can eat almost anything that will be useful for her and her little miracle. As we can see, if you want, you can always find recipes that will diversify the diet of the wet nurse and not harm the baby's delicate body. You should not limit yourself too much in everything. After all, one day will come when the baby will have to eat other foods besides mother's milk. And his body needs to be prepared for this event, gradually introducing more and more new dishes into the nursing mother's diet.