Diet taboos for caesarean section

The core dietary taboos after caesarean section can be condensed into three sentences - strict fasting and no drinking for 6 hours after surgery, avoid gas-producing, greasy, and highly irritating foods before passing gas, do not blindly take supplements throughout the puerperium, and do not touch foods with clear toxic/milk-reducing properties. You can basically eat other common foods as needed without excessive dietary restrictions.

Last year, I accompanied my best friend to give birth to a baby by caesarean section. As soon as she was pushed back to the ward, her mother was holding a thermos bucket and was about to fill her with warm millet porridge. She was stopped by the patrol nurse on the spot. Many elderly people don't know that spinal anesthesia/epidural anesthesia for caesarean section will temporarily inhibit gastrointestinal motility, and even the swallowing reflex has not been fully recovered. Eating and drinking within 6 hours after the operation can cause pain at the wound due to choking and coughing, or the risk of aspiration into the trachea. If you are thirsty or hungry in these few hours, you can only use a cotton swab dipped in warm water to moisten your lips and carry it through.

After the first 6 hours, don’t rush to put something in your mouth. At this time, the intestines and stomach have not fully "awakened", and you cannot eat anything until you have passed gas (that is, farted). When it comes to exhaust, there is a lot of controversy: the older generation loves to cook radish soup, saying it can smooth the gas, and many traditional confinement nuns will prepare it in advance. However, many Western obstetricians now do not recommend drinking it - radish itself is a food that is prone to gas production. If the gastrointestinal motility has not been restored, drinking it will accumulate gas in the stomach, causing the wound to twitch and ache. My best friend secretly drank half a cup of carrot soup made by her mother. She was so swollen that she couldn't sleep for half the night. In the end, the nurse prescribed lactulose to calm her down. If you are really hungry during this period, just drink some sucrose-free pure lotus root starch and rice oil with the rice residue removed. Don't touch any milk, soy milk, or fatty broth, as they will only aggravate flatulence.

When you finally fart, don’t rush to ask your family to make you hen soup or give you brown sugar and eggs. The custom in my hometown is that right after giving birth, you have to eat 8 eggs a day and drink 3 meals of old hen soup to replenish your body. In fact, it is really deceptive. The stomach and intestines are still in the "resumption of work transition period" in the first three days after passing gas. Overly greasy food will not only increase the burden on the intestines and stomach and induce constipation. Anyone who has experienced it is not afraid to exert force when squatting on the toilet and pulls on the wound. It can also easily block the breasts. If mastitis is blocked, it will be more uncomfortable than giving birth to a child. When it comes to brown sugar, there are huge differences between the north and the south: Northern customs believe that brown sugar can expel lochia and replenish qi and blood, and you must drink enough for 10 days after delivery. ； However, many obstetricians in the South will clearly advise not to drink it, saying that the blood-activating effect of brown sugar will prolong the discharge time of lochia, which is not conducive to recovery. In fact, this all depends on your personal situation. If you don’t have a lot of lochia and don’t have high blood sugar, it’s absolutely fine to drink warm brown sugar water for two or three days. If you have a lot of lochia and are complicated by gestational diabetes, there’s no need to join in the fun.

There are also many elderly people who say that they cannot eat fruits or salt during confinement. In fact, it is really not that exaggerated. As long as they are not iced fruits just taken out of the refrigerator, apples, strawberries, and kiwis at room temperature can be eaten by steaming or boiling them if you are afraid of coldness. Otherwise, eating polished rice, white noodles, and egg broth every day will triple the probability of constipation. You can also eat salt, just add a little less to enhance the taste. Not eating salt at all will lead to electrolyte imbalance, making the body so weak that you can't even hold a child, which is not conducive to recovery. As for the "milk-replenishing foods" that many people talk about, such as leeks, malt, and hawthorn, they actually vary from person to person: when my cousin had low milk supply, she ate a leek bun and her milk supply was reduced by half. ； My colleague has so much milk that the baby can't finish it. It's okay to eat a leek box every now and then. If you don't have enough milk, just avoid it. If you have enough milk, there's really no need to torture your mouth for this taboo.

Of course, you can’t just eat everything. It’s clear that you should try to avoid foods that contain alcohol and things that are too spicy and exciting. Alcohol can be passed to the baby through breast milk and affect the baby's development ； If you have a weak stomach or your baby has eczema allergies, eating spicy food may aggravate the discomfort, so don’t try it blindly.

In fact, after all, the dietary taboos for caesarean section are really not as strict as those posted on the Internet. You don’t have to listen to what you can’t eat and what you can’t touch. The core thing is to follow your body’s feelings. If you feel comfortable eating and don’t feel any discomfort, then you can eat. This is more reliable than old customs and standard lists on the Internet.