Myths and facts about Baby Food

As a new mum, you’re inundated with advice about how and what to feed your baby every way you turn. It may be from well-meaning family members or even complete strangers on the street. While some tips are sanity-savers, others can just leave you confused. Here we look at the some of the common ones you may come across to help you decipher fact from fiction.

If you have small breasts, you won’t produce enough milk to feed your baby.

FALSE: Size doesn’t matter!
The breast tissue you need to nurse a baby grows in response to pregnancy regardless of your breast size. It is in this so-called functional tissue—rather than in the fatty tissue that is responsible for breast size—that the milk ducts are located. So rest assured that whether you’re an A or D cup, your breasts are capable of providing your baby with the milk the baby needs.

You should drink beer or boza to increase your milk production

FALSE: According to specialists, beer and boza make no difference to your milk flow quantities. Current advice is that breastfeeding mums should not drink alcohol at all but an occasional alcoholic drink is fine just after a breastfeed as alcohol goes freely into breast milk. When there is alcohol in the milk, babies don’t drink as much as they don’t like the taste. But two to three hours after taking a standard drink, you will have no alcohol left in your milk supply. The best way to increase your own milk production is to increase the removal of milk by either feeding your baby more or expressing.

You must eat only bland foods while breastfeeding

Maybe, maybe not.
By the time the foods you eat have been digested and used to make breast milk, the potentially upsetting food elements have been broken down and shouldn’t affect your baby at all. In other words, if you eat cabbage or broccoli, it’s unlikely that it will make your baby gassy. And if you indulge in some spicy salsa, your baby most likely won’t refuse to nurse. Still, there are a few foods that do cross into breast milk and may perhaps upset some babies’ stomachs.
Many breastfeeding moms swearby the wait-and-see approach, which we also totally support: Don’t alter your diet at all and see if your baby has a problem. If she does seem fussy after you eat certain foods, experiment freely with your diet.

Exercise will turn your milk sour

FALSE: Not as far as your baby is concerned.
Common wisdom used to be that workouts produce high levels of lactic acid in breast milk, giving it an unpleasant taste. But recent studies show that babies don’t notice any difference.
And whatever you do, don’t pull up your exercise bra to nurse; the tight band can lead to clogged ducts.

You’ll be hungry when you breastfeed

TRUE: Nursing burns an extra 500 to 600 calories per day. The obvious plus is that you’ll lose your baby fat faster than if you bottle feed. The downside is: you’re always hungry. So go with the flow for now. Eat three wholesome meals per day, and if you’re hungry in between (you will be!), nosh on nutritious healthy snacks like fruit, cheese, yogurt, , nuts and whole-wheat toast, and make sure to drink plenty of fluids (especially water and skimmed milk).

A breastfed baby won’t sleep through the night until she starts eating solids.

FALSE: Your baby will sleep through the night when she’s ready.
That depends on a number of factors, such as her size, personality and sleeping patterns. That said, breastfed babies do need to be fed more frequently than formula-fed babies in the early months because breast milk is digested more quickly than infant formula.

Formula makes a baby’s poop darker and smellier

TRUE: Compare what’s in the diaper of a breastfed baby with a formula-fed baby and you’ll definitely see some differences. In general, formula poop smells stronger, is darker in color, and is firmer than breast-milk poop. But every baby is different, and so is their poop. Different smells and colors are nothing to worry about. Selecting a formula enriched with prebiotic fibers (GOS) helps promote soft and frequent stools. The only two colors which are not good are red or black, as they could indicate intestinal bleedings and in which case you should seek help immediately from your pediatrician.

Giving your baby fruit as a first solid will give her a sweet tooth.

FALSE: The importance of the order that solid foods are introduced is very non-evidence based. A lot of it is cultural and simply what suits each family.

As a guide, at six months, rice cereal is given first for the iron, then fruits and veggies, building up to meat by about seven months.

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If you have any other questions that this article did not answer, or if you want additional clarification on any of the points in this article, feel free to send us an inquiry by clicking here, or just feel free to Ask Janny our resident dietitian and/or nutritionist.