Consumption Of Spicy Food While Breastfeeding? Is There A Effect?

Illustration of spicy food. (Unsplash/Emy)

YOGYAKARTA - Maybe you become one of the women who are breastfeeding and like spicy foods. If true, you may also worry about whether spicy foods can affect breast milk. Because there are many assumptions that breastfeeding mothers eat spicy foods, will make babies fussy, bloating, and kolic. However, is this assumption true? What happens if you eat spicy food while breastfeeding? Check out the review below.

Reporting from the Baby Center page, experts say that there is no evidence that spicy food can cause this problem. However, there are several studies that say capsaicin is suspected to have resulted in skin rashes in several babies. Capsaicin is an active ingredient in chilies that contain spicy and hot taste.

The study concluded that capsaicin from spicy foods has the potential to enter breast milk. However, capsaicin is included in breast milk in only a very small amount.

Therefore, there is no need to worry if you like spicy food when you are still breastfeeding. Cooking chilies with hot temperatures is believed to reduce capsaicin content. The lower the content, the less that will enter breast milk.

Therefore, those of you who are breastfeeding can still eat spicy food. Even eating spicy is said to have a good side for the little one. Hot food will help him to get to know a new taste.

Hot foods that affect breast milk will make the taste stronger, so that babies tend to breastfeed longer. This is evidenced by research showing that babies exposed to garlic flavors through breast milk tend to stay in the breast and feed longer.

In addition, breastfeeding mother food will also be a food that the child likes when he grows up. In other words, babies with various flavors and healthy foods through breast milk tend to have healthy eating habits the next day.

However, you should eat spicy food with a small portion. This is done to introduce a spicy taste and see how your little one responds. If the baby is immediately fussy after being given spicy food, you should try another menu and see how different the response is.

As explained earlier, there is capsaicin content in chilies. Although uncertain, consumption of this content may cause breastfeeding mothers, even babies to experience diarrhea. The reason is that there are several babies that are very sensitive to capsaicin, resulting in diarrhea when breastfeeding mothers eat spicy foods. Diarrhea in babies can also occur because of allergies that affect the digestive system of the little one.

Diarrhea in babies can be characterized by symptoms of changing the frequency of bowel movements to more frequent. In general, in one day the little one will urinate more than three times. Changes can also occur in the consistency of the issued dirt, for example into liquid and without stuff. Babies who experience diarrhea must immediately get treatment to avoid dehydration, aka lack of fluids.

In addition to maintaining food intake, you are also advised to take supplements so that breast milk becomes smoother.

That's the explanation of the effect of eating spicy food when breastfeeding. Hopefully useful. Visit VOI.id to get other interesting information.