Diet taboos during confinement

At present, the medical community recognizes that there are only three categories that need to be avoided 100% - all foods containing alcohol, half-cooked raw/half-cooked foods, and ingredients that can cause allergies. The other widely circulated "cannot touch cold, cannot eat salt, cannot eat fruit, cannot eat spicy" are all controversial items. There is no universal "must abide by the rules" and can be adjusted flexibly based on your own body tolerance and the eating habits of your hometown.

Don't believe it, I met a mother in Hangzhou a while ago. The old man in her family told her that she cooked eggs with Hakka rice wine for a week. As a result, the baby fell asleep all day after drinking breast milk. I went to the hospital for a check and found that although the alcohol content in the breast milk was not high, the newborn baby's metabolism was too poor and he had a slight alcohol reaction. After stopping the wine, the baby regained his energy the next day. Don’t think that it will be fine if the alcohol content is low or it has been cooked. Alcohol will remain no matter how it is cooked. Once given to babies through breast milk, it can easily affect their nervous system development. This is really a hard red line, don’t touch it.

The same goes for half-cooked food. Sashimi from Japanese restaurants, runny soft-boiled eggs, and fat beef that has been soaked twice in a hot pot and still has bloodshot eyes may carry Listeria and Salmonella. The immunity of a mother who has just given birth is much lower than that of ordinary people. Ordinary people may be fine if they eat it. If you eat it, you will most likely suffer from vomiting and diarrhea. In severe cases, it will be transmitted to the baby through breast milk. If you really want to eat it, wait until you are postpartum and cook it thoroughly before eating it. Not to mention foods that you are allergic to. If you eat mangoes before pregnancy, you will get a rash. Don’t even think about trying to “supplement nutrients” after giving birth. By then, you will be allergic and itchy, and your baby will develop eczema after drinking milk. It is completely unnecessary.

As for the issue that everyone is arguing about the most, "Can I touch the cold?", there is really a difference in the ceiling between the north and the south. On the 5th day after giving birth, my best friend from the Northeast secretly showed off half a box of iced strawberries while her mother was out shopping for groceries. Nothing happened. Later, her mother found out that she chased her and scolded her for three times. Even now, her child is 3 years old and has not suffered any "confinement syndrome".” ； But another colleague of mine had a weak stomach and intestines before pregnancy. In the summer, drinking normal temperature mineral water would cause stomach upset. After giving birth, he took a sip of water that had just been poured out of the thermos and left to dry for 10 minutes. He had diarrhea for two days, and then drank warm water for a month. In fact, there is no standard answer to this matter at all. The old saying "raw and cold hurts the spleen and stomach" is not unreasonable, but it does not apply to everyone. If you are usually cold-tolerant, it is perfectly fine to eat some room-temperature yogurt and washed fresh fruits. But if you are usually afraid of cold, it is not shameful to steam and boil the fruits before eating them. There is no need to use force or force.

There is also the saying that "salt cannot be eaten during confinement" that has been spread for many years. I really want to cry out for salt. In the first two weeks after giving birth, almost everyone will sweat, their clothes will be wet at every turn, they will urinate more than usual, and they will lose salt very quickly. If they really don't eat any salt at all, they will be so weak that they can't even hold the baby. In severe cases, they will suffer from electrolyte imbalance. When my cousin was in confinement, her mother-in-law made her salt-free pig's trotter soup and crucian carp soup. She vomited immediately on the third day after drinking it, saying that she felt like chewing tasteless cotton. Later, she secretly added half a spoonful of salt to the soup. Her appetite returned immediately, and her milk volume increased a lot compared to before. Of course, you are not told to eat salty foods to your death. It is true that traditional Chinese medicine has said that salty foods will increase the burden on the kidneys. Modern nutrition also recommends that the daily salt intake during the confinement period be controlled at about 5g, which is similar to the healthy eating standards of ordinary people. Just don’t eat high-salt foods such as bacon, pickles, and potato chips. The little salt you put in normal cooking is completely fine.

There are also people who say "You can't eat fruits during confinement". I have seen too many mothers who have listened to this saying and haven't touched a bite of fruit for a month. They are so constipated that they feel uncomfortable even if they use Kaisellu. They cry and say that they never want to have a second child. The vitamins and dietary fiber in fruits are really a magic tool for relieving postpartum constipation. As the old saying goes, fruits are cool in nature. If you are afraid of discomfort after eating them, steam or boil them. Steam soft apples and pears, or boil hawthorns until they are sandy. Eat them warmly. They supplement nutrients without irritating the gastrointestinal tract. Why not? There is a mother next to me who likes to eat cherries. She ate ten of them at room temperature every day for a week after giving birth. She didn’t have diarrhea, and the baby didn’t have any discomfort. She was so fat that she didn’t have any problems until she was half a year old.

In fact, I have met so many mothers, and my biggest feeling is that there is really no need to turn the confinement diet into a standardized textbook. Some people say that they cannot eat leeks and Sichuan peppercorns, and that they want to restore breast milk. I have seen people who eat leek buns and have so much milk that they have to freeze it in the refrigerator. I have also seen people who drink barley tea and drink milk directly. The individual differences are so big that you can't standardize them. As long as you don't feel uncomfortable after eating it, and your baby doesn't have diarrhea, eczema, or irritability after drinking breast milk, then it's okay to eat anything.

To put it bluntly, confinement period is meant to allow you to have a good rest. You don’t have to worry about a few “old rules” passed down from unknown years, making you unable to eat what you want and feeling angry every day. A good mood is the most important thing for breastfeeding and recovery, and it is more effective than any dietary taboos.