Stop Tinnitus Permanently
Powered by MaxBlogPress 

Best Health

All Information About Health, Balancing Our Life By More Healthier

Health Care Breast Milk & Exercise

Posted on | September 11, 2009 | No Comments

Easy AdSense by Unreal

As far back as 1974, Janet P. Wallace, PhD, an associate professor and director of the Adult Fitness Program at Indiana University in Bloomington, remembers hearing women complain that their nursing babies refused to drink breast milk after the mothers finished exercising.

Wallace’s most recent study on the subject, which was published just last year, is the latest in an ongoing series of experiments aimed not only at finding out why infants may be finicky about postexercise milk, but how exercising mothers can alleviate the problem without giving up their fitness programs.

breast feeding

In a survey of 75 women who participated in postpartum exercise classes through local hospitals or YMCAs, 7% of new mothers said they had problems nursing their babies after exercising. Wallace says that while such difficulties may not seem widespread, those who do encounter the problem may face a serious dilemma.Wallace also notes that this situation may affect more women than statistics indicate because only women enrolled in supervised classes were polled. Most exercising mothers, especially those who worked out regularly before they gave birth, do so outside of structured classes. Furthermore, Wallace says that women in classes often perform moderate levels of exercise, whereas most of the women she heard complaints from were mothers who exercised heavily and took part in athletic competitions.

Some mothers are left wondering if they should give up their own health agendas for the benefit of their newborns. Wallace says no woman should have to make that decision.
“The whole purpose of these studies is to help women who want to both exercise and breast – feed,” says Wallace. “Women shouldn’t have to choose between the very intimate act of nurturing their babies and keeping themselves in shape. They should have the option of doing both.”

Why Babies Sour On Postexercise Milk

Wallace points to the buildup of lactic acid in breast milk after  exercise as at least one reason for the sourpuss response by nursing babies of active women. Wallace’s tests show a 105% increase in lactic acid concentration in postexercise breast milk compared to pre – exercise breast milk. Although it’s not harmful, lactic acid tastes sour and has been found to alter the flavor of mother’s milk. Studies show that even newborn have a sense of taste refined enough to detech the change. (Taste buds reach mature adult morphology 13 – 15 weeks in utero and are complete before birth.)
Wallace studied 26 nursing mothers and their babies. The infants ranged from 2 – 6 months old. The mothers engaged in a graded treadmill exercise. The treadmills were started at very slow speeds and increased until each woman reached her maximum effort. The women exercised on the treadmill fcr 30 minutes.

Lactic acid concentration was measured in milk samples taken before the exercise and at periods 10 minutes and 30 minutes after the exercise was completed. The babies were then given samples of the milk an a double – blind test, meaning the offered milk was coded so that neither the babies nor the mothers nor the investigators knew if it was milk taken from the mother before of later she exercised. The mothers then rated response of their babies in accepting the milk.

When the code was broken, the test results showed that babies preferred pre – exercise milk to postexercise milk by a statistically significant factor.

What Can You Do?

Wallace says the test results don’t mean mothers have to give up their fitness routines. She offers these guidelines for exercising mothers whose babies may turn up their noses at postexercise milk:
> The simplest solution is to exercise at moderate intensity to prevent excessive lactic acid production. In Wallace’s studies, the lactic acid concentration for women who exercised moderately was only one – third as high as the lactic acid buildup in women who exercised heavily.
> If a nursing mother wants to continue high – intensity training, Wallace suggests nursing the infant before exercising, or collecting the milk before exercising and storing it in the refrigerator for later. (Of course, refrigerated milk should be reheated before it’s fed to the baby!)
> The mother may also try waiting 30 minutes after exercising, emptying her breast milk, and allowing new milk to be produced before breast – feeding.
Wallace emphasizes that many exercising mothers have no problem with babies rejecting milk. If that’s the case, she says women shouldn’t worry about altering their routines. No evidence shows that postexercise milk is in any way nutritionally inferior to pre – exercise milk, Wallace says. Studies have shown that exercising does not alter the fat or carbohydrate content of mother’s milk, though research is currently in progress to test if exercise affects the vitamin or mineral composition of mother’s milk.
“These guidelines are only for mothers who have a problem nursing their babies after exercise,” says Wallace. “Mothers who don’t have a problem do not need to make any modifications.”

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Reddit
  • Yahoo! Buzz
Category: Breast Milk, Exercise
Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply