After the birth of a child, a woman is faced with the question of what foods she can eat. Can a nursing mother have fried potatoes? What if it turns out to be harmful to the baby? Even ordinary products that appear on the table every day can now cause allergic reactions on the baby’s skin or lead to digestive problems.
Composition of potatoes
Potatoes are rich in vitamins, microelements and carbohydrates. If you eat 300 grams of it boiled, you will consume the average daily intake of carbohydrates. Don’t forget this, as other foods contain them in your diet.
It also contains a lot of essential vitamin C, especially when young and fresh. But the longer potatoes are stored, the less it becomes. The composition also includes almost the entire vitamin B group (thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid and others). They help cope with anemia, increase resistance to stress, participate in metabolic processes, are necessary for normal growth and development, support the functioning of the heart, brain, nervous system, and thyroid function. It also contains the rare vitamin K, which plays a significant role in blood clotting and is needed for connective tissues (bones, muscles, etc.)
Potatoes contain a lot of potassium, which regulates the normal functioning of the cardiovascular system and skeletal muscles. Vitamin B9 contained here helps complete absorption of potassium into the blood. Phosphorus promotes good liver and brain function and improves memory. Calcium is needed for the entire musculoskeletal skeleton.
Should you eat potatoes when breastfeeding a newborn?
Potatoes are a healthy and familiar product for every person, which is found in many dishes. During the lactation period, it is necessary for a young mother to create a complete menu that would meet the needs of the mother and child, despite the necessary restrictions. The diet of a nursing mother necessarily includes it in the diet as a source of “fast” carbohydrates and essential vitamins.
Before cooking, potatoes must be soaked in cold water for several hours.
In order to get the maximum benefit, it is better to boil, stew or bake potatoes. This type of heat treatment allows you to preserve a greater amount of useful substances, and the absorption of the product will be easier for the body of a nursing mother.
The benefits of potatoes
The composition already makes it clear that potatoes are simply a necessary product for breastfeeding. It helps restore many organ functions disrupted during pregnancy and childbirth. With its help you can improve the condition of the gastrointestinal tract. Not too high in calories, yet nutritious, helps you feel full without eating too much. It improves cardiac activity, pancreas and gall bladder function. Often diets do not recommend consuming this vegetable, but doctors use it to treat and prevent many diseases, and it is also included in the menu of almost all therapeutic diets.
General rules for eating fried foods
- A few drops of oil are enough to grease the pan. Remember that nothing will stick to a well-heated frying pan. In cooking, the main thing is good cookware. A cast iron frying pan is ideal for frying any food with a minimum amount of oil.
- Try not to fry potatoes, there is no benefit in doing so.
- Limit the amount of fried foods in your diet as much as possible, use them for variety.
- Dilute the oil you use with water. This way you can reduce the damage and the amount of oil absorbed into the product.
- If you still use too much oil, place the finished dish on a paper towel to absorb the excess.
Contraindications
As it turns out, this product has practically no contraindications, since it is hypoallergenic. But a reaction to the large amount of starch contained in it is possible. Most often this occurs in infants; it rarely affects mothers. But there is an excellent solution: most of the starch can be removed by soaking the peeled tubers in cool water for two hours or more.
The vegetable can also cause constipation. But this is only in cases of excessive consumption. If you eat no more than 200 grams per day, then such problems will not arise.
Can a nursing mother eat fried potatoes?
The menu of a nursing mother should consist of healthy and nutritious foods, and the dishes should be tasty and varied. A feature of the diet is also a strict ban on eating fried foods. Fried potatoes are prohibited. Due to the availability and ubiquity of its use, there is an impression of its usefulness. But during the frying process, potatoes lose a significant amount of nutrients, lose moisture and accumulate fat. This product is no longer suitable for a nursing mother and a newborn; it should be abandoned during breastfeeding.
In the first month after birth
It is better to introduce a new product gradually, monitoring the reaction of mother and baby. The starch contained in the composition can cause an allergic reaction. In the first month after childbirth, it is better to prepare boiled potatoes or cream soup with a little salt. For a weakened mother's body, fatty fried potatoes can provoke an exacerbation of chronic diseases of the digestive tract or the emergence of new ones.
In the second month after birth
The next month is marked by a slight relaxation of the strict diet. The mother's body is gradually recovering, but the ban on eating fried potatoes still remains. In the second month after giving birth, a young mother’s diet can be diversified with baked potatoes without oil. During cooking, do not allow the formation of a brown crust, and it is better to use a baking bag or foil.
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Potatoes for nursing mothers
No matter how wonderful potatoes may seem, it is worth figuring out in what form they are allowed during breastfeeding. The main thing, of course, is not to forget that nursing mothers should not eat fried or fast food, especially in the first month after giving birth. Such potatoes are, to put it mildly, unhealthy during breastfeeding, and it is best to avoid them.
But there are a huge number of other recipes with this delicious vegetable. You can use it to make casseroles, purees, stews: stew, bake in the oven, etc. Boiled potatoes are a component of many salads, which are also very healthy and tasty.
But if the mother really wants fried potatoes, then they can be consumed, but only after the child is 6 months old. At the same time, it should not be too fried; it is best to fry the boiled potatoes a little in vegetable oil.
You should avoid potato dishes from fast food cafes until the end of feeding, as these products contain too many carcinogens and toxins, which can negatively affect the baby’s health. This is also not the most suitable dish for the mother’s health, and it has a detrimental effect on her figure.
Can I have fried potatoes while breastfeeding?
The diet of foods during breastfeeding should meet the needs of the mother and child. Especially in the first months, a nursing mother is recommended to adhere to a balanced but strict diet. Restrictions also apply to the cooking method. Often during a diet, doubts arise regarding the consumption of familiar dishes, for example, is it possible for a nursing mother to eat fried potatoes?
How to introduce potatoes into your diet
While breastfeeding, potatoes can be eaten immediately after discharge from the hospital. It is nutritious and will help you regain strength faster after childbirth. But at the same time, it’s still worth trying a small amount first, because of the baby’s possible reaction to starch. That is, you need to start in the same way as when introducing other products.
First, eat a couple of slices of boiled potatoes in the morning or lunch and monitor the condition of the newborn. If there are no rashes, redness and digestive problems, then the next day you can double the portion. However, the tubers should still be soaked before cooking. This will improve digestibility for both mother and baby and provide a kind of allergy prevention.
If the mother is a supporter of pedagogical complementary feeding in the future, then it is best to include boiled and mashed potatoes in her menu more often. This way, the baby will see what foods the mother eats, and when complementary foods are introduced, it will be better to eat them.
And yet, can a nursing mother have fried potatoes? This is allowed, but the introduction of such a dish should be postponed until 6-8 months, then it will be easier for the baby.
Recommendations for use
- Since fried potatoes are a very heavy food, it is better to cook and eat them boiled the first time. Or you can bake it or make mashed potatoes. If after this the child develops digestive disorders, it is quite natural that fried potatoes should not be eaten.
- Before the baby reaches the age of 3-4 months, it is not recommended to introduce fried potatoes into the mother’s diet. Boiled can be eaten immediately from the first days of the baby’s life, without getting too carried away, but with fried it becomes more difficult. As you know, in the first months of a baby’s life, the digestive system is still very undeveloped and is not able to digest heavy foods, which also includes fried potatoes. Only after 4 months can the child’s body more or less cope with them, and only if the mother does not overeat.
- For the first time, you can try only a small portion (about 50 g). It is advisable to eat in the first half of the day. Under no circumstances should you eat on an empty stomach; it is better to first eat something proven.
- Over the next 2 days, you need to observe the child’s body’s reaction to the new dish. If no changes in intestinal function are observed (diarrhea, increased intestinal colic), then you can gradually increase the amount of fried potatoes in the mother’s diet. If you do get a reaction, don’t despair. It’s just that the child’s body is still weak and cannot cope with this food. No earlier than a month later, you can try fried potatoes again, and it is possible that the second time the result will be different.
- The daily allowance of fried potatoes is 150 g. But it is not recommended to eat them more than once a week.
What is this product
It seems like a funny question, what kind of product are potatoes? Indeed, from an early age, everyone’s menu includes potato dishes: boiled or fried, in soups or in the form of mashed potatoes. Pancakes, potato pancakes, casseroles, dumplings, pies, salads - all these dishes can contain potatoes.
However, few people know that this is a rather heavy vegetable, because potatoes contain a lot of starch and carbohydrates
In 100 grams of raw product there are approximately 17 grams of carbohydrates, and starch takes up up to 80% of the total dry matter of each tuber. The full chemical composition of potatoes looks like this (per 100 grams of product):
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- B vitamins – 1.44 mg;
- ascorbic acid – 20 mg;
- vitamin PP – 3.1 mg;
- biotin – 0.0001 mg;
- beta-carotene – 0.02 mg;
- vitamin E – 0.1 mg;
- vitamin A – 0.003 mg;
- potassium – 568 mg;
- chlorine and phosphorus – 58 mg each;
- sulfur – 32 mg;
- magnesium – 23 mg;
- calcium – 10 mg;
- sodium – 5 mg;
- iron, zinc and manganese – 0.9, 0.39 and 0.17 mg, respectively;
- aluminum, rubidium, vanadium, copper and boron - 0.86, 0.5, 0.15, 0.14 and 0.12 mg, respectively.
The remaining microelements (lithium, fluorine, cobalt, chromium, iodine, etc.) in potatoes are insignificant - from 0.08 to 0.0003 mg.
The nutritional value of potatoes (100 g) is 77 kcal, containing 2 g of protein, 0.4 g of fat, 16.3 g of carbohydrates, and 15 g of starch.
Thus, potatoes are a nutritious food, quite rich in B vitamins, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus. This must be taken into account when planning the diet of a nursing mother.
Energy value of potato dishes
The nutritional value of the finished product depends on the cooking method. Boiled potatoes with or without skin allow you to preserve almost all valuable qualities. And the prepared dish will still remain low in calories.
Important!
In the process of heat treatment, 10-40% of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is lost, and in the process of frying potatoes, B vitamins are destroyed.
In order to get the maximum benefit from potatoes, you need to boil them together with the peel, after thoroughly cleaning them from dirt and dust.
The energy value of fried potatoes increases several times. Especially if the frying process takes place in deep fat. This occurs due to the absorption of fat from the oil in which the product is cooked. Carcinogens are also released during the frying process.
| Name of the finished product | Energy value, kcal per 100 g |
| Boiled “in its uniform” | 76 |
| Boiled without peel | 72 |
| Fried | 157 |
| Deep fried | 264 |
| Chips | 551 |
