^
Fact-checked
х

All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.

We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.

If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.

Can a nursing mom have fresh and baked apples?

Medical expert of the article

Obstetrician-gynecologist, reproductive specialist
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025

Crispy, juicy, tempting – this is about apples. Yellow, red, green, sour and sweet, tasty and healthy – this is also about them. It was not for nothing that Eve seduced Adam with this forbidden fruit, and the apple of discord became the cause of a serious quarrel between mythical beauties. Beautiful fruits also attract modern women, especially pregnant and nursing ones. But can a nursing mother eat apples?

Can a nursing mother eat apples?

The question of whether a nursing mother can eat apples arises in the maternity hospital. After all, a responsible mother first of all thinks about not harming the child who is breastfed.

Apples contain many vitamins, minerals, and plant fiber. 85% of the pulp is water. The seeds contain essential oils, the skin contains flavonoids, and the leaves contain the glycoside amygdalin. Thanks to such richness, the fruit provides multiple effects on the body:

  • supports the nervous system, relieves fatigue;
  • improves skin structure;
  • participates in the production of hemoglobin, providing the brain with oxygen;
  • cleanses and strengthens the body, removes fluid;
  • burns sugar, slows down aging;
  • regulates blood pressure, strengthens capillaries;
  • affects the formation of bone tissue, growth of teeth, hair and nails.

Apples during breastfeeding are a source of health, necessary for both mother and baby. They do not cause allergies, so they are safe during lactation. With mother's milk, all the useful substances necessary for growth and development enter the newborn's body. For a nursing mother, it is important that apples regulate bowel function, eliminate constipation, relieve fatigue, and improve mood.

However, sometimes familiar fruits also cause negative consequences, such as intense gas formation. Acids, which fruits are rich in, develop hypersensitivity of enamel, increase stomach acidity and appetite. To avoid such troubles, apples should not be overused, consumed in moderation and peeled.

Imported apples are dangerous because they contain preservatives and a wax base that forms a protective film on the surface. Even local apples grown in industrial orchards should be consumed with caution, carefully removing the peel, since the technology involves repeatedly spraying apple trees with chemicals that destroy pests.

In this regard, a nursing mother should prefer home-grown fruits. Baked apples are especially useful and safe for breastfeeding.

Can a nursing mother eat fresh, raw apples?

Women who have given birth for the first time, who deny themselves many things during the period of bearing a fetus, want to diversify their diet with available fruits. Therefore, they ask doctors if a nursing mother can have fresh, raw apples? And they are surprised to learn that no. More precisely, it is possible, but not immediately, but a little later. The consolation is that baked fruits can be introduced into the diet almost immediately, in the first days of breastfeeding.

Why are fresh apples temporarily banned during breastfeeding? There are two main reasons:

  • the child will suffer from gas;
  • Brightly colored fruits can cause allergies.

Most women listen to the advice of nutritionists, who talk about these properties of apples, answering the question of whether a nursing mother can eat apples. And they eat such a dish with pleasure - tender apples from the oven, with or without fillings.

Fresh fruits should appear in the mother's menu no earlier than the third month of breastfeeding. You need to start with one small fruit, preferably in the morning.

Green apples are recommended, as they do not cause allergic reactions or increased gas formation in the intestines. But if a woman ate red fruits during pregnancy without any undesirable consequences, then it is quite possible that the baby will not have any “apple” problems.

trusted-source[ 1 ]

Can a nursing mother eat green apples?

The answer to the question of whether a nursing mother can eat green apples is yes. It is even believed that these are ideal apples for breastfeeding. To make sure of this, you should start with one piece, observing whether everything is okay with the baby. And if yes, then gradually increase the portions, without abusing the amount - however, as with other food.

The following facts support the idea that a nursing mother can eat apples:

  • availability of fruits in any season of the year;
  • absence of exotic and allergenic components;
  • abundance of varieties;
  • variety of taste depending on the variety;
  • the presence of useful ingredients: vitamins, iron, pectin.

Green apples are especially useful for anemia, as they contain the most iron. The combination of antioxidants, vitamins, insoluble fiber, and pectin is so effective that, according to available research, it prevents malignant neoplasms.

When lactating, you should start with a small piece, gradually increasing the portion over several days. One apple during breastfeeding is enough to saturate the body of a lactating woman and her pet with useful compounds. These should not be raw, but baked fruits.

The green color confirms the safety of the fruit for the baby and nursing mother. White filling is one of the most popular green varieties. Ripe fresh fruits are selected and washed thoroughly before use. It is healthier to use local products that have not been treated with pesticides. They are not subject to long-term transportation and storage, so they retain their juiciness and healthy ingredients better.

trusted-source[ 2 ]

Can nursing mothers eat red apples?

Red apples are usually not recommended for breastfeeding. But the final decision on whether a nursing mother can eat red apples depends mainly on the newborn's reaction.

  • If a slightly “grown-up” child does not become restless, does not break out in a rash, and does not suffer from bloating after the fruit eaten by his mother, then the mother does not have to categorically refuse her favorite apples while breastfeeding.

Red fruits contain a particularly valuable microelement – easily digestible iron, therefore they increase the level of hemoglobin in the blood. Pectin binds and removes cholesterol. Fiber activates the gastrointestinal tract.

  • Can bright apples be harmful? The red color, caused by pigments, signals the danger of developing an allergy. The pigment is contained in the peel. The same ingredient makes citrus fruits and strawberries allergenic.

To avoid risk, the peel should be cut off, although it also contains useful substances. In addition to people prone to allergies, such varieties are not recommended for pregnant women, people with cardiovascular diseases and ulcers of the duodenum.

Red apples are usually sweeter, which is bad for the baby's digestion: it causes fermentation and bloating. This is another weighty argument for a nursing mother to refuse tempting bright fruits.

Apples are a versatile product and are used not only in fresh form. Can a nursing mother eat red apples if they are ingredients in dishes? It is known that carotenoid pigments are resistant to high temperatures. Therefore, the allergenic danger of red apples does not go away either in baked goods or in duck with apples.

Can a nursing mother eat yellow apples?

Breeders count over 7.5 thousand varieties of apples. No one will undertake to name the most delicious, especially since "there is no accounting for taste". No overseas exotics of one species can boast such an abundance and variety of varieties. They are united by their undoubted benefit and inedible taste. The color range reflects both warm, from yellow to red, and cold white-green shades.

  • Can a nursing mother eat apples, regardless of color, or is color the deciding factor when choosing a variety?

Yellow fruits are considered to be less juicy than green ones and not as sweet as red ones. However, they are very tasty and interesting from a culinary point of view. Popular varieties are Calvin, Arkad, Golden Delicious, Reinette, Slavyanka, Medok.

Yellow fruits are nutritious, rich in organic acids, vitamins, bioactive substances, which is important for breastfeeding. They are effective for reducing blood pressure, preventing caries, removing poisons and slags. They make excellent puree, jam, and cake creams.

For completeness of information, the general question of whether a nursing mother can eat yellow apples should be detailed by specifying: when and how much? Nutritionists' recommendations for nursing mothers boil down to the following points:

  • For the first time, it is advisable for a nursing mother to limit herself to a test spoon of applesauce, monitoring her own body’s reaction and the baby’s condition.
  • If everything is OK, the portion of apples during breastfeeding can be increased. But eat no more than 200 g of fresh ones, and only green ones for the first six months.

When adding yellow fruits to the mother's diet, organic apples should be chosen. And when buying imported ones, scrape and scald them with boiling water or cut off the skin. It is ideal to eat fruits grown in private gardens or summer cottages, where technologies for treating trees from fruit pests are not used.

trusted-source[ 3 ]

Can a nursing mother drink apple compote?

For normal metabolism, a nursing mother needs about 2 liters of liquid per day, and fresh compotes occupy an important, even leading place in the menu. Doctors have no doubts whether a nursing mother can have apple compote. This is one of the products that promotes the production of breast milk. The raw materials are available in all seasons, it is not difficult to prepare such a drink, and mothers do it themselves.

Can a nursing mother eat apples to make compote, and which ones are better - fresh or dried, local or imported?

  • For both mother and baby, the best option when breastfeeding is unsweetened apple compote or with a minimum of sugar. A sour drink is best for quenching thirst, does not provoke gas in the baby. Such apple compote during breastfeeding is allowed to drink mother immediately after birth, a trial portion is half a glass.

Recipe for a delicious compote: for 3 cups of water use 0.8 kg of green apples in slices, a spoon of sugar. Cook with or without the peel, until the slices are soft.

  • Uzvar takes longer to prepare, about 0.5 hours. This drink "likes" to steep. You can add a little honey to the cooled dried fruit compote. And if the uzvar is bland, add lemon juice.

Classic uzvar is prepared from a mixture of dried fruits - apples, pears, raisins, dried apricots. But this option is for the future, when the baby's delicate digestive system adapts to familiar food, including his mother's favorite fruits.

trusted-source[ 4 ]

Can a nursing mother eat baked apples?

Baked apples are essentially a dietary product, so they are prescribed by gastroenterologists for inflammatory processes and other gastrointestinal pathologies. They are actively absorbed by the body, accelerate digestion and metabolism, act gently on the intestines, and have an anti-inflammatory effect.

Can a nursing mother eat baked apples? Yes. They are prepared quickly and according to a simple recipe: medium-sized fruits need to be washed, the core and stem removed, and the cavity sprinkled with sugar. Place the prepared apples on a deep baking sheet or other dish, pour a little water on the bottom and put in the oven. If desired, the resulting cavity can be filled with honey, raisins, nuts, or cottage cheese.

  • This is how you bake whole apples. Readiness is indicated by transparency on the outside and softness on the inside. Many people like to sprinkle the dessert with powdered sugar, but a nursing mother does not need extra sugar.

Fruit can also be baked in slices. The cut flesh is sprinkled with sugar and placed in the microwave for about 10 minutes.

Whether a nursing mother can have baked apples of a certain color is a controversial issue. Not all children, fortunately, are prone to allergies and not all colored fruits cause them. But in the first months of breastfeeding, caution is never excessive. Therefore, mothers should prefer ripe green fruits, and it is better to introduce red ones into the diet later, at first, be sure to peel them.

Apples during breastfeeding will not only enrich the diet and the body of the mother in labor with essential substances, replenish energy, but also help to cope with some digestive problems, such as constipation. Most mothers in labor face them.

A mask made from this product, combined with olive oil and honey, has rejuvenating properties. For the mask, take a baked apple, a few drops of oil, a spoonful of honey. Keep it on your face for 15 minutes, wash it off with water at room temperature.

trusted-source[ 5 ]

Can a nursing mother eat apple charlotte?

Apple charlotte is a surprisingly tender and tasty pie, the advantage of which is that it is prepared quickly from a minimum of products: flour, sugar, eggs, apples. Even a mother who is always busy with her baby can occasionally treat herself to such a dessert.

When deciding whether a nursing mother can have apple charlotte, you need to consider the baby's possible reaction to the products used. It is believed that by the age of four months, a nursing mother's diet can be diversified, including traditional pies. But at the same time, watch whether the baby reacts to chicken eggs or sugar. Otherwise, it is recommended to use quail eggs and brown sugar, but such a replacement will make the baked goods much more expensive.

Apples in the charlotte are well digested, do not irritate the mother's digestive organs and do not cause colic in the child. Thus, the question of whether a nursing mother can eat apples contained in baked goods is answered positively.

  • Sugar, in normal doses, is a source of energy during breastfeeding.
  • You shouldn't overuse white flour either, as it's pure carbohydrate and nothing more.

Replacing premium flour with coarser flour is not an option, because in this case the charlotte will never turn out as airy and melt-in-your-mouth as it should be.

You should not eat apple charlotte every day while breastfeeding, but less often, as a dessert. If desired, you can add cinnamon, vanilla, raisins, other fruits and berries, but first make sure that these components are not allergenic.

Can a nursing mother eat dried apples?

If everything is clear with fresh apples, then the question of whether a nursing mother can eat dried apples remains open. Let's try to find out what benefits dry apple slices can give to a nursing mother.

Dried fruits retain vitamins and other useful components in a concentrated form. Perhaps, only fresh fruits contain more vitamin C. They contain few calories, but have a beneficial effect on digestion, normalize metabolic processes, which is very important during breastfeeding. Therefore, it becomes clear whether a nursing mother can eat apples in this form and why.

For comparison: an incomplete cup of dried slices contains more fiber than a large fresh apple. Moderate consumption of dried apple fruits increases hemoglobin, reduces cholesterol levels, and improves the functioning of the digestive organs.

  • When breastfeeding, dried apples are combined with raisins, nuts, and prunes.
  • The mixtures can be used to flavor oatmeal and yogurt.
  • Its beneficial properties are evident when preparing main courses and salads.

A baby digests dried fruit compote better than any canned compote or juice. The drink normalizes stool, increases lactation, cleanses the intestines, and protects against colds. Dried apple compote is an excellent preventive measure against gastrointestinal diseases. It should be drunk warm, about half an hour before feeding the baby.

Can a nursing mother eat apple pie?

The restrictions on the menu of a nursing mother after childbirth are clear: the newborn needs time to adapt, including the digestive system, to new nutritional conditions. And at this time, it is completely unclear what product can cause an allergy or upset stomach in a small person. Even such a harmless dessert as apple pie raises concerns: can a nursing mother have apple pie?

  • On the other hand, when breastfeeding, a woman needs not only healthy food, but also dishes that arouse appetite and pleasant emotions. And sponge cake with apples during breastfeeding is exactly what you need.

We have already found out whether a nursing mother can eat apples. The ingredients from which the favorite confectionery is baked are also generally safe for the child, unless some exceptional sensitivity to eggs, sugar, or apples is detected. The benefit of the dessert is that heat treatment makes gas formation or other gastrointestinal problems impossible - neither in the mother nor in the infant.

To combine business with pleasure, a mother can eat about 50 g of the product for breakfast, well in advance of the next feeding. If there is no concern, it is allowed to increase the portion so that a full 200 or 250 grams can be eaten several times a week.

Important clarification: the pie must be home-made, from quality ingredients. In addition to the classic recipe, there are easier-to-make options that can be used by mothers busy with children.

  • Apple pie recipe: beat 2 eggs with a fork with 0.5 cups of sugar, pour in a glass of kefir, mix again. Add 1.5 cups of flour, 1 tsp. soda, a pinch of cinnamon. The soda can be quenched with kefir separately. Pour the mixture into a mold with apple slices and place in a preheated oven. The pie bakes quickly. Readiness is checked with a match, toothpick or other improvised "tool".

Can a nursing mother eat cinnamon with apples?

Cinnamon is a popular spice, although it does not grow in our area. We buy the oriental spice in the form of tubes or ground into powder, and use it for baking, preserves, and meat dishes.

Cinnamon gives a specific aroma and taste, is a source of flavonoids, iron, calcium, manganese. It has antimicrobial and antifungal properties, prevents flatulence and spasms, regulates stomach acidity, cleanses the body. The spice goes especially well with apples.

Thanks to these and many other qualities, cinnamon is used to improve the health of the body and to lose weight. But can a nursing mother have cinnamon with apples, because her main task is to take care not of her own figure, but of the health and development of the child?

Whether a nursing mother can eat apples flavored with cinnamon is judged by the following facts:

  • Hypersensitive children may have an allergic reaction to cinnamon.
  • The spice thins the blood, which is dangerous after childbirth.
  • Contraindications are associated with the presence of hypertension, gastrointestinal pathologies with low acidity and liver.
  • Changes the effect of some medications.
  • In some women, it can cause headaches, apathy, swelling, and rashes while breastfeeding.
  • If taken in excessive doses, it impairs the taste of breast milk.

At the same time, a moderate amount of cinnamon with apples during breastfeeding stimulates lactation - for example, a sweet milk-cinnamon drink taken at night. Cinnamon is introduced into the diet of a nursing mother no earlier than the fifth month of the baby's life. Start with a pinch added to compote, pastries, tea. Like other innovations, it is better to use cinnamon for the first time in the morning, so that you can observe the baby's behavior during the day.

Can a nursing mother eat apples and bananas?

Fruits have a well-deserved reputation as useful and healthy products, and every responsible mother considers it her duty to saturate her body, and at the same time the body of the fetus, with vitamins and minerals. No one has counted, but it can be confidently assumed that this category of women eats apples and bananas the most.

  • But now the blessed time of pregnancy has passed, and an equally important period begins – feeding the child. Can a nursing mother eat apples and bananas?

The principle should be: what is not forbidden is permitted. Neither apples nor bananas are on the list of forbidden fruits, and the mother's body vitally needs the nutrients they contain. But there are restrictions on when, how much, and in what form these fruits will be most useful.

Another important postulate is that a nursing mother should prefer local seasonal fruits, since the body is genetically adapted to them and assimilates them better. Whether a nursing mother can eat apples from the supermarket is impossible to answer unequivocally, because imported fruits also vary.

  • And it is reasonable to ask those who are categorically against: if tropical bananas are allowed, then why can’t imported apples be used when breastfeeding?

Moreover, women have a concept of “pull”, “really want”, which does not go away immediately after childbirth. And vice versa, there is a complete rejection of certain products, from which the stomach spasms and the gag reflex is triggered.

In general, a mother should introduce all fruits into the menu, but do it moderately and gradually, taking into account the advice of doctors and monitoring the baby's condition. Remembering that allergenic products include all citrus fruits, red berries, sea buckthorn, exotic fruits (papaya, coconut, mango), and high-quality apples and bananas, on the contrary, are considered practically safe fruits.

Can a nursing mother eat pickled apples?

The benefit of soaked apples is in the high concentration of ascorbic acid. They stimulate digestion, support the immune system, and prevent osteoporosis. Therefore, women in any condition do not deny themselves the pleasure of savoring the crispy fruit, without doubting its benefits. And only with the birth of the baby do they begin to doubt: can a nursing mother soak apples? Despite the fact that they contain vitamins of several groups, fiber useful for activating peristalsis, iron necessary for hemoglobin; but does a newborn need all this and does it pose a threat to his health?

When breastfeeding, as well as during pregnancy, a woman is forced to deny herself some products and dishes. Even healthy food can overload the newborn's stomach until the digestive organs have become stronger and the beneficial microflora has not formed. And if in general the answer to whether a nursing mother can eat fresh apples is clear, then there are restrictions regarding soaked ones. The recommendations outlined will help to avoid troubles from such apples during breastfeeding.

  • To prevent allergies, do not soak red fruits.
  • Prepare local apples, not processed imported ones.
  • Pickled apples are good for you when they are fresh; in spring they contain few vitamins, only fiber remains.
  • Do not include soaked fruits in your diet in the first weeks after giving birth.

And most importantly, monitor the child's behavior and well-being. If signs of anxiety are evident and they are clearly related to nutrition, then the nursing mother needs to stop eating apples and return them to the diet only after a few weeks.

Apples of all sorts are amazing fruits that people all over the world enjoy eating. Pediatricians allow feeding the product to small children and answer affirmatively to the question of whether a nursing mother can eat apples. The risk of allergy is minimal, and the benefits from them are undeniable. It is only important to expand the diet in doses, taking into account the specific situation and individual characteristics of the child.


The iLive portal does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
The information published on the portal is for reference only and should not be used without consulting a specialist.
Carefully read the rules and policies of the site. You can also contact us!

Copyright © 2011 - 2025 iLive. All rights reserved.