Many young mothers face a problem of insufficient lactation. Older women, based on their experience, often advise milk tea when breastfeeding. This is one of the proven folk remedies. It is believed that it really helps. But also some women say that such tea can provoke colic in an infant and digestive system diseases. Which opinion is actually fair? What is the benefit of milk tea for breastfeeding?
Benefit and harm
In general, of course, if you listen to the opinion of doctors, then to strengthen lactation, they recommend applying the baby to the chest as often as possible. Indeed, hormones - prolactin and oxytocin are responsible for the amount of milk. And frequent feeding helps to stimulate their production in the body of a young mother. But what about the huge number of women to whom tea with milk during breastfeeding at one time helped? And our grandmothers, mothers and aunts did not know any other means.
The mechanism of action of this folk remedy is actually simple - any hot drink increases the rush of milk. Oxytocin reflex is stimulated due to exposure to heat. Then milk begins to flow actively to the nipples. It’s easier for the child to suck it out. Therefore, it seems that it has become more. But in fact, the work of the mammary glands simply normalized.
But often a child has colic, problems with stools, increased nervousness if mom drinks milk tea to stimulate lactation. The fact is that not all infants absorb protein from a cow's product. After all, their body does not yet produce enzymes for its processing. Therefore, constipation is possible or, conversely, a liquid foamy stool. In this case, it is worth excluding milk from the diet. And in tea, you can replace it with cream that does not contain lactose. But it will be even more useful to drink tea with condensed milk during breastfeeding.
Green tea is a great alternative to black
The second problem that can be observed in this situation is the increased nervousness of the baby. It happens that there is a positive effect of such a folk remedy on his body, but at the same time the baby does not sleep well, is hyperactive, often cries. This is due to the caffeine content in black tea. It has a tonic effect on the still fragile nervous system of the baby. We recommend replacing it. For example, green tea with milk during breastfeeding will not only help lactation, but also calm the baby. Also, the drink will strengthen the nervous system of the mother and her baby.
Herbal teas
There is currently a huge selection of lactational herbal supplements. Instead of tea, you can brew nettles. It will improve the quality of milk and help a woman's body recover from childbirth. Fennel decoction also stimulates lactation well. If you drink it before feeding, the baby will not have problems with gas formation. Fenugreek is the most powerful lactogenic agent, and goat root can increase milk volume by 50%.
Opinion of Dr. Komarovsky
In addition, a nursing mother needs to make up for fluid loss. Dr. Komarovsky recommends consuming one to two liters per day of warm drinking. It is necessary to divide it into small portions and drink a glass 20-30 minutes before each feeding. This will have a beneficial effect on the psychoemotional state of the mother, stimulates the flow of fluid to the nipples. Therefore, the doctor recommends milk tea with breastfeeding. Komarovsky also focuses on the following point: in order to establish normal lactation, the first 28 days of the baby's life must be fed on demand, and not by the hour. The more often this happens at the stage of lactation, the better.
What else affects lactation? A young mom should eat well. The diet should contain cereals, vegetables, lean boiled meat. It is necessary to exclude canned foods, convenience foods, alcoholic and carbonated drinks, any other products that can cause increased gas formation or allergies in the baby. Also, lactation is prevented by smoking and an unstable psycho-emotional state.
Milk drinks
In order for the mother product to contain all the necessary and useful substances, you can drink not only tea with milk during breastfeeding. Recipes of decoctions that are used by traditional medicine with insufficient lactation are diverse. Here is some of them:
- Walnut drink. Pour a glass filled with them into a larger container. Pour a liter of hot milk and leave to infuse for 4 hours. Take 2 times a day, one third of a glass.
- Carrot treat. Mix 2 cups of warm milk with a couple of tablespoons of grated vegetable. You need to drink three times a day in one glass.
- Fennel broth. Mix it with dill and anise. The amount of each ingredient is a teaspoon. Pour in a glass of boiling water. Insist an hour. Use half a glass twice a day, forty minutes after a meal.
Ginger tea, dill water, decoctions of chamomile and dog rose help to improve lactation. It is strongly not recommended to take aloe vera extract, ginseng, infusions from St. John's wort, rhubarb, wormwood, coltsfoot, buckthorn, comfrey. They not only reduce the amount of milk, but can also seriously harm the baby's health. Also, you can not brew mint and lemon balm.
How to make tea with milk?
It is recommended that you prepare milk tea with breastfeeding as follows:
- Make weak green tea. Choose the usual one without flavoring and aromatic additives. After all, they can cause allergies in the baby.
- Add boiled milk to taste. If the baby is less than two months old, replace it with a spoonful of condensed milk, dried cream, or discard the milk altogether.
- You can add a spoonful of honey.
You need to drink tea warm, almost hot, half an hour before feeding. Make sure that the amount of tea drunk per day does not exceed one liter. In addition to this drink, you can also eat about a liter of compote, a decoction of chamomile. Do not forget about ordinary clean water.
Positive opinion of women
Many young mothers drink milk tea while breastfeeding. Reviews about him are mostly positive, because this is a folk remedy tested over the years. Most women find it effective, and most importantly, safe for normalizing lactation. Many advise instead of green tea to brew linden, as it helps to establish digestion in a newborn, eliminates colic. In addition, the color of the tree is an excellent sedative. It also has beneficial effects on the baby’s nervous system. If the baby does not sleep well, is naughty, then mother should abandon the usual tea in favor of lime.
Many lactating women advise not to rely only on tea with milk, but also to take other special means to normalize lactation. Good reviews about Apilak tablets. The drug is made on the basis of royal jelly. He helped many mothers whose milk was "lost" due to stress or malnutrition. It is also often recommended that, along with the use of tea with milk, use self-massage of the breast, relaxing baths.
Experienced women advise you to relax, calm down, and throw all worries out of your head before breastfeeding. Drink a large cup of warm tea with milk, wait twenty minutes. Massage the chest, take the baby in his arms and start feeding. To sweeten the drink, add some honey. Tea with milk while breastfeeding is really very useful:
- Helps restore lactation.
- Replenishes the lack of fluid in the mother's body.
- It has a calming and relaxing effect.
- If you brew fennel instead of tea, you can easily solve the problem of gas formation in the baby.
- If you brew linden or chamomile, it will calm the baby and normalize his sleep.
Negative opinion of women
But we must not forget that everything is individual. And often you can find negative reviews saying that tea with milk not only did not help, but also worsened the condition of the mother and child. Some women claim that after using this remedy, the child begins to have constipation or, conversely, a watery, foamy, green stool appears. In some cases, tea with milk did not help at all. And lactation recovered only after the use of other agents.
Conclusion
Such negative reviews do not mean that this method is bad. It's just that every baby has its own allergens and individual reactions to a particular product. And the body of every woman is unique in her own way. Therefore, before introducing milk tea into your daily diet to normalize lactation, consult a pediatrician.