If you do have the occasional soda, be sure to limit how many you consume only one or two a week. You can drink the soda just after you have breastfed your baby to reduce the amount of caffeine that can be passed on to your baby.
The short answer is yes, it is generally safe to drink caffeine while you are breastfeeding your baby. However, experts recommend limiting your caffeine intake to 300 milligrams of caffeine per day while nursing. Caffeine does affect some babies.
Verdict: Safe in Moderation
Consuming coffee, tea, and caffeinated sodas in moderation is fine when you are breastfeeding, according to HealthyChildren.org. Breast milk usually contains less than 1% of the caffeine ingested by the parent.
Not really, unless they're caffeinated. (Caffeine has been reported by some moms to cause irritability and colic symptoms in their breastfed babies.) Your afternoon soda shouldn't bother baby, but beware that fizzy drinks can make you feel bloated and full, keeping you from drinking enough fluids during the day.
The best thing you can drink, particularly in the early stages of breast feeding, is plain water… and lots of it. Avoid any fizzy drinks. They contain artificial sweeteners, including aspartame, which just like giving your baby a coffee. Plain water is best.
Avoid drinking more than 2 to 3 cups (16 to 24 ounces) of caffeinated drinks a day. Caffeine in your breast milk might agitate your baby or interfere with your baby's sleep.
The bubbles in a carbonated drink cannot pass into your milk and affect baby. If this could happen, you'd have carbonated blood and carbonated milk! If mom is gassy, can that make baby gassy? No.
Sodas (soft drinks)
Nursing mothers are often told that if they drink sodas that contain carbonate (which make the bubbles) that this will cause excessive gas in the intestinal tract of their breastfed babies. This theory has not been proven to be a cause of infant colic.
milk and soda come together and sink to the bottom leaving a clear substance. As a result, the protein in milk attached to the acid in the soda causing it to curdle resulting in a chemical change. Drinking a soda can cause the acids in soda to decrease the proteins in your bones.
Carbonated drinks: Carbonated drinks and citrus juices also cause gas and should be avoided post C-section.
Mercy Pediatrician, Dr. Ashanti Woods, Discusses Effect of High Sugar Levels in Breast Milk. Mothers who consume large amounts of sugar could be passing the added sugar to their infants through breast milk, which could hamper the child's cognitive development.
Caffeine appears in breastmilk with a peak usually occurring about 1 hour after a dose.
Certain foods may cause a chemical reaction in the body that increases your desire for them, one being sugar. Breastfeeding gives much of your body's nutrients to your baby which can leave you feeling lacking and subsequently craving sugar as a quick fix.
There is 34mg of caffeine in a 12-oz (335ml) can of classic Coke and 46mg in a Diet Coke of the same size. They do have caffeine-free alternatives, too, which are great for anyone who wants to limit how much they drink.
"Caffeine is a stimulant and can cause increased movement in your baby," says Dr.
Anecdotally, some moms say other foods that commonly cause gas in adults, such as broccoli, cabbage, beans, cauliflower, garlic, or spicy foods, make their breastfed babies gassy or irritable. You may find that your baby's gas improves when you eliminate a suspect food from your diet.
For breastfed babies, gas might be caused by eating too fast, swallowing too much air or digesting certain foods. Babies have immature GI systems and can frequently experience gas because of this. Pains from gas can make your baby fussy, but intestinal gas is not harmful.
Sugary beverages like soda are linked to a long list of adverse health effects, starting with obesity, poor blood sugar control and diabetes. Recent studies have found an association with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease.
Even one or two colas a day could increase your risk of type 2 diabetes by more than 20%. Sugar intake is linked to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and excess fat, all of which increase the risk of heart disease. Colas and other sugary drinks have been linked to an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
Experts have said people should drink a maximum of one sugary drink a week – or risk a host of health problems from heart attacks to cancer. A major review of research into added sugars found excess consumption is linked to 45 different health conditions.
Chocolate contains theobromine. Because theobromine is a stimulant, it could, in theory, cause the breastfed infant to be wakeful and fussy. If indeed the chocolate does contain caffeine, there's a double whammy.
Even caffeine consumption of more than 300 mg is unlikely to harm a baby. However, the CDC note that extreme caffeine consumption of more than 10 cups a day may cause symptoms in the baby, such as fussiness and jitteriness. Caffeine levels in breast milk peak 1–2 hours after drinking coffee.