Table of contents:
- Green tea side effects for nursing mothers
- Safe dosage limits for green tea for breastfeeding mothers
- Green tea alternative for nursing mothers
Green tea has been believed for hundreds of years to have good health benefits. However, not everyone finds the same, including breastfeeding mothers. If green tea is consumed for breastfeeding mothers, are the benefits still the same or are there side effects?
Green tea side effects for nursing mothers
A mother who is still in the breastfeeding process must pay attention to their diet, considering that the quality of food and drink will affect the milk produced.
One type of drink that breastfeeding mothers have often heard about and avoided is caffeine. Types of caffeinated drinks are not limited to coffee, but also include tea, including green tea.
As reported from the page Drugs, green tea including teas that contain caffeine, polyphenols, and tannins.
According to an article from the National Library of Medicine, anxiety and sleep disturbances have occurred in some babies of mothers who consume high levels of caffeine.
In fact, giving tea directly to babies can actually interfere with the iron absorption process.
This is because caffeine can stay in a person's body for 5-20 hours. What's more, the duration can be longer if it's affected by medications, high body fat, and other health problems.
However, this does not mean that green tea cannot be consumed by breastfeeding mothers. It's just that, you need to know in advance the safe dosage limit for consuming green tea.
Safe dosage limits for green tea for breastfeeding mothers
Normally, caffeine can still be consumed by breastfeeding mothers, but of course there must be a safe limit. This is so that the side effects of green tea for breastfeeding mothers do not affect the health of their babies.
Therefore, breastfeeding mothers are not recommended to drink caffeinated drinks more than 300 mg per day. This means that you can still drink green tea, but it is advisable to consume only 1-3 cups per day.
According to American Academy of Pediatrics, in general, breast milk contains less than 1% caffeine which has been digested by the mother. If you don't drink more than three cups of green tea that day, there will likely be little to no caffeine in your baby's urine.
However, everyone's metabolic processes will be different. Maybe for some people their caffeine tolerance level is much higher than yours and this also affects their babies.
Therefore, it is highly recommended to see how many cups of green tea you have consumed during breastfeeding. Don't forget to see if anything changes in your baby when you drink green tea.
Green tea alternative for nursing mothers
Actually, green tea can still be consumed for breastfeeding mothers. However, if you are worried that green tea's caffeine content could adversely affect your baby, it's good to look for other options.
For example, you can choose teas that have low or no caffeine content, such as black tea.
In addition, there are several other types of tea that have a much lower caffeine content than green tea, such as:
- White tea
- Chamomile
- Ginger tea
- Peppermint tea
In essence, green tea is still considered safe for consumption by pregnant women, but within reasonable limits, namely one to three cups per day. If you are a caffeine lover, maybe you should start reducing your intake from now on so as not to affect your baby's health.
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