Caffeine While Breastfeeding When caffeine enters your bloodstream, a small amount can be passed along to your baby through breast milk. Most babies aren't affected by this, but some sensitive little ones may be extra fussy or wakeful after drinking milk with trace amounts of caffeine.
Overall, soda is safe to consume while breastfeeding and will not cause any adverse effects to you or your breastfed baby. However, if the soda is caffeinated, avoid consuming more than the recommended limit of 300 milligrams per day.
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.
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.
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.
Consuming too much added sugar, especially from sugar-sweetened beverages, can increase a child's risk for obesity, tooth decay and many other health-related problems. If kids drink these types of drinks a lot, especially soda and energy drinks, it can also impact bone health.
Caffeine does pass into breastmilk, however baby gets about 1.5% of the amount of caffeine that the nursing parent gets (Berlin, Denson, Daniel & Ward 1984). The half-life of caffeine is about 97.5 hours in a newborn, 14 hours in a 3-5-month-old baby and 2.6 hours in a baby older than 6 months.
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.
Try not to go longer than about six hours without pumping if baby is eating during that time. That means, don't skip more than one breastfeeding without pumping. Note: If baby is sleeping longer stretches at night, you should be sleeping those stretches, too.
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.
Caffeinated drinks, such as soft drinks, tea, coffee, and sports drinks, should be avoided for children younger than age 2.
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.
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.
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.
Does drinking caffeinated soda really make your baby move? "Caffeine is a stimulant and can cause increased movement in your baby," says Dr. Nina Ali, an OB-GYN at Baylor Obstetrics and Gynecology at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women, in an email interview with Romper.
Eating too much sugar when you're pregnant may increase your risk of gestational diabetes3 and pre-eclampsia4 and increases the risk of your baby becoming overweight later in life2.
A mother is described who observed her babies becoming restless during nursing whenever she had eaten foods containing sugar. The problem ceased almost instantly when she adopted a sugar‐free diet. The extensive literature on sugar, physical and mental illness and behavioural problems was reviewed.
There's no need to wait between feedings for the breasts to refill—in fact, a long wait between feedings tells the breasts that the baby needs less milk and production slows down.
This question comes up often as more breastfeeding moms are pumping and often times, exclusively pumping to produce breast milk. Another common related question that moms ask is does pumping burn as many calories as nursing? The answer to this helps answer the first question, which is a resounding Yes!