For newborns, breast milk is the best and most essential source of nutrition. Thick, cool, and sweet-smelling breast milk promotes healthy growth and development, supporting the baby to thrive. So, what should you eat to make your breast milk thick, cool, and help your baby gain weight?
1. Thick, nutritious, rich, and easily digestible breast milk and Its Amazing Benefits
Breast milk is not only a daily source of nutrition for newborns but also contains numerous antibodies. Its composition changes daily and even hourly to match the baby’s developmental needs. In the first years of life, the nutrition in breast milk focuses on “nourishing” the baby’s brain rather than promoting weight or muscle gain like other types of milk.
Key nutrients in breast milk include:
- Fats: Aid in baby’s development, provide energy, and support digestion.
- Proteins: Taurine, the best protein found in breast milk, plays a crucial role in the brain development of children.
- Vitamins and Minerals: Help babies absorb nutrients easily and strengthen their immune system.
- Other Nutritional Components: Compounds in breast milk enhance cognitive development and support the baby’s overall growth.
Benefits of Breast Milk for Newborns and Infants:
- Boosts the Child's Immune System Against Common and Heart Diseases because breast milk in the early days is rich in protein. About 50% of this protein is immune globulins (mainly IgA), which help combat harmful bacteria and viruses.
- Breastfed Babies (for at least the first 6 months) Can Avoid Many Acute and Chronic Diseases: Such as diarrhea and respiratory infections. Additionally, breast milk is the only source of taurine for babies, which is essential for brain development and the retina of the eyes.
- Babies Who Are Breastfed Are Less Likely to Have Speech Defects: Breastfeeding helps babies develop the muscles and bones of the mouth and cheeks properly, aiding in coordinated oral development.
Trắc nghiệm dành riêng cho người mắc đái tháo đường: Chế độ ăn của bạn đã hợp lý chưa?
Người bị bệnh đái tháo đường cần phải quan tâm nhiều hơn đến cách tính toán khẩu phần ăn sao cho phù hợp với nhu cầu và tình trạng sức khỏe. Nếu chưa rõ, bạn có thể tìm hiểu kỹ hơn thông qua bài trắc nghiệm ngắn sau đây.2. Tips to Improve Nutrition for Thick and nutritious, rich, and easily digestible breast milk
"What to eat to make breast milk thick and help the baby gain weight?" is a common question among breastfeeding mothers. To ensure the nutritional quality of breast milk, mothers should include the following essential food groups in their diet:
Add Green Vegetables and Fruits:
Include plenty of vegetables, fruits, and grains in every meal. These foods are rich in essential nutrients, vitamins, and fiber that support overall health.
Consume Protein:
Meat and fish are excellent sources of iodine and protein, providing DHA for both mother and baby. Mothers should eat fish 1 to 2 times per week and increase their meat intake to ensure sufficient protein for themselves and their babies.
Increase Calcium Intake:
In addition to adding calcium-rich foods to daily meals, mothers should drink milk, as it is a major source of calcium and nutrients. This is especially important postpartum to help strengthen the baby's bone development and prevent osteoporosis in mothers later.
Drink Plenty of Water:
Water is essential. To ensure adequate hydration for both the mother's body and sufficient milk production for the baby, mothers should drink 8–10 glasses of water daily, equivalent to about 2 liters.
3. What to Eat to Make Breast Milk Thick, Cool, and Help Your Baby Gain Weight?
Thicker breast milk provides more nutrients for the baby, while cool and fragrant milk stimulates the baby to feed more and improves digestion. So, what should mothers eat to ensure their breast milk is both nourishing and cool for their babies to gain weight?
According to experience, to produce the best quality breast milk, mothers need to ensure a proper diet, lifestyle, and the correct breastfeeding techniques.
Add Carrots to Your Diet
What to drink to make breast milk cool? Drinking a glass of carrot juice every morning or adding carrots to your lunch menu can make breast milk more fragrant and cooling. The high vitamin A content in carrots enhances the quality of breast milk, keeps it cool, and helps prevent the baby from experiencing heat rash or internal heat issues.
Besides benefiting breast milk, carrot juice also helps mothers regain a slimmer figure and improves skin health postpartum.
Besides making carrot juice, carrot soup or blending mashed carrots with warm milk and sugar is another reasonable way for mothers to incorporate carrots into their daily meals.
Dill: More than just a kitchen herb
Dill is commonly used as a seasoning, but however, dill also has an amazing benefit as a lactogenic food.
Using dill not only increases milk production but also enhances the flavor of breast milk, encouraging the baby to feed longer.
For dill, mothers are advised to use it regularly during breastfeeding by preparing it in ways such as drying it to make tea or adding it as a seasoning to soups and porridges.
Dandelion Leaf Tea for Nutrient-Rich Breast Milk
According to traditional medicine, dandelion leaves have the effects of clearing heat, detoxifying, and cooling the liver. Many postpartum mothers have used these leaves to cool their skin by drying them and brewing them with water. Moreover, dandelion leaves are rich in protein and nutrients such as calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, and B-group vitamins, these help breast milk become thicker, richer in nutrients and support the baby in gaining weight more quickly.
Dill: More than just a kitchen herb
Brown rice is not only fragrant and delicious but also a food rich in vitamin B and can be used in combination for medicinal purposes. With high levels of trace elements such as magnesium and sodium, brown rice is an ideal choice for mothers wondering what to eat to make their breast milk more fragrant and cooler.
Proper preparation for mothers: Toast brown rice until fragrant and store it in an airtight container for gradual use. Each time, take 50g of brown rice, cook with 2 to 3 liters of water, and optionally add a pinch of salt for taste. Consuming it hot is best for the mother's body.
Cool, Healthy Breast Milk with Sweet Leaf
Sweet leaf is highly nutritious and greatly impacts breast milk production, providing calcium, protein, phosphorus, fats, various vitamins, and iron. Sweet leaf leaves help stimulate milk flow for postpartum mothers, heal wounds, reduce fever, and clean out retained placenta or leftover blood after childbirth.
Proper preparation for mothers: Wash sweet leaf thoroughly, blend it to extract juice for drinking, or cook it into soup to eat with rice daily. Sweet leaf juice is cool and fragrant, stimulating more milk production for breastfeeding mothers.
Milk-Enhancing ming aralia
Ming aralia leaves have multiple benefits: they not only enhance milk supply, reduce breast engorgement, and resolve blocked milk ducts but also improve the quality of milk for the baby. Breast milk becomes thicker and more fragrant, encouraging the baby to breastfeed for longer.
Note for mothers: Avoid prolonged use of ming aralia, as it may cause milk reduction.
Thicker Breast Milk with Pumpkin
Pumpkin is rich in vitamins and minerals, providing an abundant daily energy source. It is an excellent alternative when mothers are tired of powdered milk products. Regular consumption of pumpkin helps make breast milk thicker and cooler.
In addition, some foods like sweet potatoes, sweet potato leaves, black sesame water, and green papaya soup/porridge can be added to diversify daily meals, helping to make breast milk thicker and cooler, supporting the baby’s weight gain.
Many breastfeeding mothers also experience blocked milk ducts during this period. If this happens, mothers should let the baby breastfeed more frequently and actively pump milk to clear the blockage. If the situation does not improve, it is advisable to seek help from professional lactation specialists or consult a doctor at a hospital.
At Vinmec International General Hospital, spinal manipulation therapy is applied to treat postpartum blocked milk ducts without using medication. With the spinal manipulation method, the therapist primarily uses the soft tips of their fingers to apply pressure along the patient's back spine. This technique helps adjust and unblock milk ducts, ensuring better milk flow and softening the breasts.
In addition to treating blocked milk ducts, spinal manipulation therapy also addresses conditions such as:
- Headaches and migraines
- Vestibular syndrome
- Cerebrovascular insufficiency
- Facial nerve paralysis (VII)
- Hemiplegia due to stroke
- Neck, shoulder, and back pain
- Frozen shoulder syndrome
- Sciatica
- Knee pain
- Herniated disc
- Numbness in hands and feet
- Stomach reflux syndrome
- Bronchial asthma
- Excessive sweating in hands and feet
- It also supports milk restoration for cases of blocked ducts, low milk supply, or loss of milk.
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