01/09/2018 Category: Nutrition for a nursing mother Author: Nadezhda Petrovskaya
A nursing mother is often forced to limit herself in the range of food so as not to harm the baby. And if you want something tasty, you should pay attention to such a healthy and tasty product as oatmeal cookies. However, there are several important points that a woman should know about this delicacy during breastfeeding.
- Benefits and harms
- Oatmeal cookies while breastfeeding
- How to choose a quality product in a store
- Recipe for nursing mothers
- Video: treat for nursing women
Composition of oatmeal cookies
Oatmeal cookies are made from a mixture of oat and wheat flour. Common dessert additives are vegetable or animal fats and granulated sugar. To enrich the taste, the manufacturer can also add honey, nuts, vanillin, dried fruits, cinnamon, and chocolate.
The product contains the following beneficial substances:
- fiber;
- amino acids;
- mineral elements (calcium, phosphorus, zinc, potassium, iron);
- vitamins (E, A, group B);
- nicotinic acid.
Often, food additives are added to the composition of oat cookies: flavorings, stabilizers, preservatives, etc. And these are not healthy ingredients at all.
100 g of industrially produced cookies contain 430–470 kcal, 15 g of fat, 5 g of protein and 74 g of carbohydrates. The glycemic index of dessert is 79 units.
Cooking rules
In order for oatmeal cookies to be beneficial, you must adhere to the following recommendations when preparing them:
- it is necessary to select only high-quality components;
- to enrich cookies with fiber, it is advisable to replace flour with oatmeal;
- the product will be more useful if you supplement it with whole grains and seeds;
- Instead of granulated sugar, it is better to use either bananas or dried fruits. If sugar is used, its share in the cookie composition must be minimized;
- The amount of fat should also be limited, since excessive consumption can cause constipation in both mommy and her baby. It is ideal if you do not use fat at all to make oatmeal cookies.
Benefits and harms
It’s not for nothing that oatmeal cookies are considered one of the healthiest treats. It contains the following substances:
- Fiber is the most significant element of this baked goods; it promotes proper digestion, reduces cholesterol levels in the blood, and provides the body with energy for a long time.
- Folic acid - has a beneficial effect on the circulatory and nervous system.
- B vitamins are important for metabolism in the body and brain function.
- Vitamin A is an antioxidant involved in bone formation and is also good for vision.
- Animal fats are necessary for the restoration of the mother’s body after childbirth.
- Minerals enter the baby’s body with mother’s milk and have a positive effect on the baby’s growth and development.
At the same time, there are a number of reasons why nursing mothers should use oatmeal cookies with caution:
- Oat treats are a high-calorie product, so women who tend to be overweight should limit the amount of sweets they consume.
- This delicacy contains a lot of sugar, so mothers with diabetes should exclude these cookies or replace them with a fructose dessert.
- Oatmeal cookies are rich in fiber, which increases the time it takes to digest food, so women with digestive disorders should avoid oat-based products.
- The dessert contains wheat flour, which contains a lot of gluten (gluten), which has a bad effect on the baby’s digestion and is contraindicated for diseases such as celiac disease.
Various preservatives, also often added to cookies, can cause colic and rashes in a baby. Oatmeal cookies are not a highly allergenic product, but the food additives included in its composition can cause an allergic reaction in a child.
Oatmeal cookies with additives can be consumed by a nursing mother if the child does not have allergies
Recommendations for introducing cookies into the menu
Before including oatmeal cookies in her menu, mommy should try some type of lean pastry. If there is no negative reaction from the child, you can move on to oatmeal cookies, following the recommendations of experts:
- A nursing mother should refrain from oatmeal cookies until the baby reaches 2 months of age, unless he suffers from bloating and colic. If there are such problems, then the optimal age of the child for introducing this delicacy is 3 months;
- for the first dose, you should limit yourself to one cookie and you must eat it in the morning and not on an empty stomach;
- then for two days you need to observe how the child’s body reacts, whether oatmeal cookies will cause an allergy in him;
- If no negative reaction is detected, then you can gradually increase the portion. But it must be remembered that the daily consumption of oatmeal cookies by a nursing woman cannot exceed 100 grams (about 5 medium-sized cookies). You can consume no more than 300 grams of cookies per week.
Oatmeal cookies while breastfeeding
Wheat and oats rarely cause a negative reaction in children, but a chicken egg, which is one of the components of the treat, is a strong allergen. Therefore, oatmeal cookies should be introduced with caution during feeding.
In the first month after giving birth, a new mother can try homemade oatmeal cookies. It is worth removing eggs from its composition, and it is also recommended to limit the amount of granulated sugar. It is advisable for a nursing mother to include a store-bought product in her diet no earlier than 3 months after delivery.
It is recommended to try cookies with 1-2 pieces of the product. During the day, the mother should observe the baby’s reaction. If the child does not show symptoms of allergies or disorders of the digestive system, the amount of dessert can be increased to 3-4 pieces per day. If a child has a negative reaction to the product, then you should stop eating cookies for 2-3 months, then try again. It is not recommended to eat cookies with chocolate chips, sugar sprinkles or icing. If the baby does not have allergies, then the mother can choose a treat with nuts or dried fruits, which are additional sources of vitamins and minerals.
Sweets from the store
Mothers who do not have the opportunity to cook at home are wondering whether a nursing mother can buy oatmeal cookies from the store. Yes you can, if you have no other choice. But for this you need to adhere to several rules:
- Use is possible no earlier than six months after birth.
- When choosing, carefully study the composition, choose healthier ones with fewer ingredients.
- You can only consume up to three pieces per day, in the first half of the day.
- On this day, other sweet dishes are excluded.
- It needs to be introduced gradually, it all depends on the baby’s body.
Read also: Can a nursing mother eat black bread (with breastfeeding)?
How to choose a quality product in a store
It is better for a nursing mother to bake oatmeal cookies herself. When baking at home, you can control the amount of sugar and other baking components. But if a woman prefers a purchased product, then she should choose it wisely in the store. It is important to pay attention to the following points:
- Appearance. High-quality cookies should have a light brown color, a smooth, crack-free surface and a soft texture.
- Package. It should be transparent so that you can visually evaluate the product. There should not be any cookie fragments or large amounts of crumbs in the bag. 1 broken product is allowed per quarter kilogram of cookies.
- Best before date. The long shelf life of the product indicates the presence of preservatives in the dessert. It is better to take cookies with a short shelf life.
- Compound. According to GOST, the ingredients of oatmeal cookies should include premium wheat flour, oat flour, vanillin, cinnamon, raisins, margarine, sugar, soda, and salt. It’s great if the product uses butter or vegetable oil. Not very desirable, but the presence of margarine is acceptable. But if the cookies contain palm oil or vegetable fats, it is better to leave such a product on the store shelf - it is of little use. When cookies contain egg powder instead of eggs, a large amount of preservatives and flavor enhancers, such a product should also not be consumed.
When purchasing oatmeal cookies, preference should be given to sweets in transparent packaging.
Is it worth eating it?
Oatmeal cookies are not an allergen, and their preparation technique is safe for human health . It has been proven that oat flour is much healthier than rye or wheat flour. This product includes the necessary healthy carbohydrates for the mother during lactation.
However, you should not immediately go to the store and buy such cookies. In the industrial version, you can find impurities that are dangerous for the baby, so it is better to prepare it at home yourself. This option is optimal because the mother herself can regulate the amount of necessary components, as well as choose only fresh and high-quality ingredients.
Recipe for nursing mothers
This recipe does not contain eggs, so the dessert prepared in this way can be consumed already in the first days after childbirth. Unlike store-bought flour, in which the amount of wheat flour exceeds oatmeal by one and a half times, in the homemade dessert according to this recipe the amount of oatmeal is increased, which significantly increases the usefulness of the product.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups oatmeal;
- 7 tbsp. l. flour, preferably coarsely ground;
- 125 g sour cream;
- 150 g softened butter;
- 200 g sugar;
- 1/3 tsp. salt;
- 1 tsp. soda
Cooking method:
- Fry the flakes in a dry frying pan until golden brown, grind in a blender.
- Beat sour cream, sugar, salt, butter. Add soda and beat again.
- Add flakes and flour to the resulting mass.
- Knead the dough to a thick consistency.
- Sprinkle a baking tray with flour and place small lumps of dough on it.
- Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
Ingredients
Prepare:
- 3 glasses of rolled oats;
- 4 tablespoons of oatmeal (can be replaced with wheat flour, or a quarter cup of the same rolled oats);
- 3/4 cup milk;
- 3 eggs;
- 5 tablespoons of sugar or honey;
- 3 tablespoons olive oil;
- some nuts and dried fruits;
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (you can eat it while breastfeeding).
Step-by-step cooking recipe:
- Warm the milk slightly, mix it with flour and oatmeal, let stand until it is absorbed (30 to 60 minutes).
- Add the remaining ingredients, mix well.
- Cover a baking sheet with parchment and place the cookies. Bake for about 20 minutes at low temperature (no more than 180 degrees).
What if you buy?
No matter how simple the oatmeal cookie recipe is and no matter how quickly it bakes, mom sometimes has even less free time for household chores. It is natural that she may have a desire not to bother with the dough, but to buy ready-made cookies in the store, running there for diapers. Is it worth it? You can if you are careful enough. When choosing baked goods, first of all pay attention to whether the cookies are sprinkled with sugar. Such an overdose of glucose can be dangerous for a breastfeeding baby. Next – fresh cookies or not? Don’t listen to the sellers - their product will always be the best and fresh from the oven, even if they know for sure that the cookies have been on sale for a week, and you came with a stroller. Look at the product itself: if there is a dry crust around the edges or the baked goods smell somehow wrong, do not buy it. The same can be advised if the box indicates a long shelf life. Why does your little one need preservatives? And lastly, such cookies are introduced into the diet of a nursing mother very carefully. You never know what the cunning manufacturer stuffed into the recipe...
If you liked our recipe, share it with your friends on social media. networks. Bon appetit!
