Ask a Baby Blogger: Can Too Much Exercise Make Your Milk Sour?by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger 29 Feb 2008 09:35 AM Several have posed this question to me recently so I thought I would take some time today in the baby blog to answer it. It used to be that conventional wisdom told mothers not to exercise while breastfeeding. When you exercise your body increases the production of lactic acid which would make your milk taste sour to the baby and would either upset her stomach or cause her to reject it. Current research does not really support this idea. The most current research that I'm aware of (and here's where I admit that I haven't seen anything on this particular topic since 2002 and so if you have a study, with a link that concludes differently, please let me know) shows that breastfeeding one hour after exercising does not affect the breastmilk or the way the baby accepts the breastmilk and that babies were not particularly more fussy after having drank breastmilk when their mother had recently exercised. I would tend to agree in general, in that I think women and their bodies were made a little heartier than that. I have to tell you though that after talking with hundreds of women over several years, my personal experience gives me a moderately different conclusion in some situations. For most women, I think if we exercise post partum, we tend to do so moderately. In other words we're not going out running marathons or hiking cross country. While certainly the body produces lactic acid while exercising, I have never heard a moderately exercising woman complain that her baby rejects the milk or that the baby is fussy afterwards. However, I have on occasion met women who like their exercise, or more accurately, they have substantially more will power than I do. Some of these women have complained that their baby rejects the breast to which I offer three possible solutions: Nurse before you exercise, or wait longer after you're finished exercising to nurse the baby, or exercise for less time. So to sum it up: there's no reason or substantial evidence that you can't breastfeed after exercising. If you notice your baby is fussy and you think it might be due to lactic acid in your milk, change your routine around and see if that helps. Related Articles: Can I Exercise After the Baby Is Born? 5 Things to Know About Mummy Tummy
Learn more about Valorie Delp  Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line. Relevantbaby tags User Comments  tentol (5) 09 Mar 2008 06:27 AMI've been breastfeeding for 3 months and started going to the gym a month ago. I breastfeed or, if the baby is asleep, I pump just before leaving for the gym. I work out for an hour. She eats every 3 hours, so there's quite enough time for lactic acid to "disappear". With a good plan, working out and breastfeeding can be achieved. So there's no excuse... Lose that baby fat! Community Tags baby, breastfeeding, babies, exercise and breastfeeding, infant, sour milk Discuss this article
|
Baby categories |
Are you subscribed to the Families.com Baby Blog? With the click of a button, you can receive an email notification anytime a new blog is posted in the Families.com Baby Blog! Just look to the right of this blog and find the subscription center (it looks just like this picture). Click on "Subscribe via Email". You'll be instantly subscribed and the email address that you registered at Families.com with will receive an instant notification whenever we post a new Baby Blog! Don't miss a thing - subscribe now!
