Can I eat peanuts while breastfeeding: the benefits and harms?

Nutrition during breastfeeding - an important point, to which a woman should pay special attention, because all the food that is consumed as a result will go into the body of the baby with milk. Doctors allow young mothers to eat peanuts, but ask to consider the possible negative consequences.

Can I eat peanuts while breast feeding?

Pediatricians do not make a ban on peanuts for nursing mothers, but it is advisable to start eating it not earlier than 3-4 months of lactation. To start, you can try to eat 1-2 peanuts 2 hours before feeding the baby. If the baby reacted well to the introduction of peanuts in the diet, then the amount of nuts can be gradually increased.

In the first month

Doctors strongly recommend eliminating any foods that can cause allergies in an infant. A breastfeeding mother's diet should include healthy foods that are digested quickly. In the first month of breastfeeding, doctors do not recommend adding peanuts to your baby's diet. If lactation is not finally established, doctors advise not to eat this nut.

In the second month.

If lactation in a young mother is established, pediatricians are allowed to include peanuts in the diet. These nuts contain a lot of vegetable protein, which is good for both the mother and the child. You should start with a small amount, gradually increasing the portion. It is better not to eat roasted peanuts, because fatty food can provoke colic and increased gas formation.

How to consume peanuts correctly

Doctors recommend introducing peanuts into the diet gradually. Start by taking a few peanuts at a time. Next, the young mother should carefully monitor the baby's reaction after feeding. If within a couple of days there was an unwanted reaction to the new product in the diet, it is necessary to exclude peanuts from the menu. Repeat the attempt to introduce peanuts into the diet can be in a couple of months.

How much you can eat per day

In the first period, you should not exceed the daily norm: doctors recommend to eat 1-3 nuts a day. After the nursing mother monitored the child's reaction to peanuts, and did not see an allergy, the number of nuts can be increased to 4-6 per day.

Is it possible to eat peanuts at night or on an empty stomach?

It is recommended to eat nuts at night, including peanuts. It contains a large amount of vitamin B, which helps to normalize the nervous system, which will help you to relax and fall asleep faster. That is why it is possible and even useful to eat peanuts before going to bed. Peanuts on an empty stomach will also not harm the body. Peanuts have many good health benefits. Eating peanuts in the morning will improve brain and nervous system function, allowing you to wake up faster and be satiated for further activities.

Is it possible to eat peanuts

There are really no specific restrictions on eating peanut husks. However, there is one nuance. It turns out that the husks in peanuts are a strong allergen. Young mothers who suffered from peanut allergies before pregnancy are better off excluding peanuts from their diet altogether, or trying to eat them peeled. Also eating peanuts with husks can make the stomach feel heavier.

It is not recommended to give peanuts with husks to children: the peel is quite hard and dense, so it is easy to choke on it. Otherwise, peanuts can be eaten with or without the peel, depending on the body's reactions and personal preferences. It is best to roast peanuts before eating: that way the peel will come off more quickly, cleaning the nuts.

Do I need to wash peanuts before eating them?

Of course, store-bought or market-bought peanuts need to be washed before eating or roasting. This rule applies to peeled nuts as well as to nuts in the shell. First, it is necessary to clean the nuts from the external dirt that sticks to them from being out in the open air for so long. Secondly, nuts are often attacked by food moths, so sellers have to treat them with chemicals.

Don't forget that even nuts that are sold in stores in packaged bags can be dirty, so when you buy a bag, don't forget to rinse. If the nuts were sold in the shell, it is enough to simply rinse them with warm water: the dense peel protects against chemicals and dust. Pre-cleaned nuts should be washed more thoroughly: first, you need to put them in a colander and rinse with tap water. And then once again rinse them with drinking water.

If nuts are bought in the market by weight, they can also be rinsed with boiled water from a kettle for prevention: all dust and dirt will go away. Nuts washed with water become less crunchy, but, if this is crucial for you, after drying, you can send them for a few minutes in the oven to dry.

The benefits of peanuts when breastfeeding

Peanuts contain many vitamins, which are useful for both mother and baby. If a young mother eats peanuts, the milk is filled with micronutrients and the caloric value increases. Also, peanuts have the following beneficial properties for the nursing mother:

1. Strengthening the vascular system. Thanks to peanuts, the blood vessels are strengthened, which reduces the risk of varicose veins.
2. Getting rid of postpartum stretch marks.
3. Getting rid of anemia. Often women after childbirth face anemia. Consumption of peanuts can solve this problem.
4. Strengthening and improvement of the nervous system. Peanuts have a positive effect on the nervous system, which helps to protect the woman who gave birth from stress and postpartum depression.

Nevertheless, even if the mother did not have an allergy to peanuts before pregnancy and birth, the infant may have such a reaction. That is why you should not immediately introduce a large amount of these nuts in your diet: start with small portions and observe the baby.

Many women who have just given birth complain about problems with the gastrointestinal tract. Remember that peanuts are a heavy food, so eating large amounts of these nuts can have a bad effect on the gastrointestinal tract. Nevertheless, the fiber in the composition supports proper intestinal function.

In what form peanuts will be useful to a nursing mother

The most allergens, as mentioned above, are found in the peanut skin. Before eating peanuts, a young mother should peel them of any husks. It is best not to eat peanuts as an independent product, but add them to vegetable salads or other healthy dishes. This way all the useful substances of peanuts will be absorbed more quickly, and the wall of the mucous membrane of the stomach will not be irritated.

You should not consume various purchased packets of flavored peanuts, because they often contain a huge amount of flavorings.

Raw

Ordinary raw peanuts are not recommended to eat not only for nursing mothers, but for all people in general. Mold can form on the raw peanut, which quickly causes allergies and leads to intoxication of the entire body. In order to avoid the following consequences, dried nuts should be heat treated before consumption. The most useful of all methods is roasting in a dry pan without oil.

Roasted

Roasted peanuts cause allergies to a much lesser extent. Yes, it was mentioned above that fatty foods are not good for the baby's body, causing painful colic, but there we were talking about heat treatment with the addition of vegetable oil. If you just fry the nuts on both sides in a dry frying pan, then the peanuts in general will retain all their properties and certainly will not be harmful to the body.

Salted

It is better not to eat salted peanuts at all during lactation. Salt has a bad effect on the body, retaining all the water in it, which eventually leads to edema. The body of the woman who gave birth is already experiencing a huge strain, and salted peanuts will only worsen the situation, also burdening the kidneys and the excretory system. The consumption of salted peanuts or strongly fried food after childbirth or during lactation leads to the deterioration of women's health.

Peanut paste

In general, peanut paste is made from roasted nuts, so allergic reactions are almost excluded. Another important point is the caloric content of the product. If a woman who recently gave birth wants to lose weight quickly after childbirth, then peanut paste is not the best option. Choosing peanut paste in the store, it is important to pay great attention to the composition and overall quality of the product. A good paste, which will not harm the health of both mother and baby, should not contain vegetable fats such as palm oil. Such oil is used in the creation of the product to make it cheaper. Despite the pleasant price, such a paste is not good for the body.

Also pay attention to the presence in the composition of synthetic additives such as E220, E211, etc. Such preservatives not only do not do any good at all, they are dangerous for the woman and her baby during the breastfeeding period. In addition, good peanut butter will never contain synthetic sweeteners. Such additives have a negative effect on the body and cause gastrointestinal problems. It is better to start introducing peanut paste with half a teaspoon. During the gradual introduction of the paste into the diet, monitor the child's condition.

What are the dangers of peanuts in lactation

Despite the large number of advantages of eating peanuts listed above, there are also disadvantages. The main ones include:

1. Heavy digestion. Since peanuts are a heavy food, frequent consumption can cause problems in the gastrointestinal tract of the baby.
2. If a woman who has given birth and is breastfeeding has had kidney, liver or stomach problems before pregnancy, or acquired them in the process, eating such food is not recommended.
3. The high fat content and caloric content of the product cause serious problems with the gastrointestinal tract. Because of frequent consumption of peanuts in large quantities, the gastrointestinal tract can suffer. This often causes flatulence, bloating, diarrhea and constipation, and so on.
4. Phytic acid in the composition. When peanuts are eaten frequently, phytic acid significantly reduces the ability to absorb nutrients.
5. Doctors also advise against eating chocolate-covered peanuts.

How to properly introduce peanuts into the diet of a stubborn mother

The first fruit is desirable to eat a few hours before feeding, so that the milk had time to enrich the new product in the diet. If you see that there is no allergy to peanuts, you can increase the number of fruits eaten per day. Do not forget about the rules of eating peanuts: it is not recommended to eat peanuts with peel and dry peanuts. Only the mother herself can answer the question about the benefits and harms of peanuts during breastfeeding.

Prevention of peanut allergy

A peanut allergy can be diagnosed by an allergist. In order to reduce or completely eliminate the risk of this allergy occurring in the future in the mother and child, several recommendations should be followed.

It used to be thought that completely eliminating peanuts from the diet was the surest way to prevent allergies in the child. However, this theory had no proof. The conclusion from this is that a mother should not remove peanuts from her diet or increase their amount in order to avoid allergies in her child. American scientists believe that children should be accustomed to eating peanuts from an early age, because this nut contains many useful substances. They found that children whose mothers ate peanuts while breastfeeding have many times less chance of developing a peanut allergy in the future than those whose mothers avoided eating peanuts during lactation.

How to choose peanuts

One of the most important points in the consumption of peanuts by a young mother is its quality. That is why you should choose it carefully and take into account the following points:

• The date of manufacture and shelf life of the peanuts.
• Appearance and color.

If you choose nuts on the market, you should pay attention to the dryness of the peanuts. If the nuts are too dry and they give off the smell of stale, it is better not to take them at all. If there are peanuts in the shells, it is easy to assess their quality: you just need to crack them and see if there is yellow dust on the fruits. The color of the peanut also plays an important role. Good and quality peanuts should not be bright yellow in color, because this factor indicates an old product.

Where and how best to store peanuts

Storage rules are also very important because if they are not followed, oil can start to be released from the nuts, giving the product an unpleasant taste and smell. The best way to store peanuts is to store them unpeeled. Store the unpeeled product in a cool place where no sunlight enters, but where air circulates. If the raw peanuts are stored in some dry place, it will eventually lead to the formation of mold on them and the complete deterioration of the product. That is why one should not be afraid of the humidity in the room: it is better to store unpeeled peanuts in a humid room than in a dry one.

If the peanuts are peeled, however, the rules for storing them are slightly different. To store peanuts for a long time while retaining their flavor and quality, you need to follow certain rules. First of all, you need to thoroughly dry peanuts, because mold is more likely to form on raw fruits. For quick drying it is recommended to put the nuts on a baking tray and leave them there for a few days. It is important that the place in which the peanuts are dried is warm. If you have an electric dryer, peanuts can be sent there at a temperature of 50-60 degrees.

The peanuts in the shell are stored for 12 months, without the shell - 6-9 months, and in the refrigerator with preservation of all its useful properties - 4-6 months.

Peanuts, though they have a lot of useful properties both for mother and baby, can still cause allergic reactions. The diet of a nursing mother should be made carefully, because everything she eats will be eaten by her baby, too. A young mother can eat peanuts, but only in moderate amounts, provided that all the rules and doctor's recommendations are followed. Remember that everything is individual, and peanuts during lactation can both harm and be beneficial to both mom and her baby.