Kombucha: Safe for nursing mothers?
If you’ve been drinking kombucha and are wondering whether you can continue doing so while breastfeeding, then this post is for you.
In short… my answer is TECHNICALLY yes, but definitely read on as there is more behind it all than the short-simple answer!
First, What Is Kombucha?
Kombucha is a fermented beverage often made from black or green tea.
The process of preparing kombucha can vary. However, it typically consists of a double fermentation process.
Generally, a SCOBY (a flat, round culture of bacteria and yeast) is placed into sweetened tea and fermented at room temperature for a few weeks.
The kombucha is then transferred into bottles and left to ferment for another 1–2 weeks to carbonate, resulting in a slightly sweet, slightly acidic and refreshing beverage.
From there, kombucha is usually kept refrigerated in order to decelerate the fermentation and carbonation process.
You can find kombucha in grocery stores, but some people chose to brew their kombucha themselves, which requires careful preparation and monitoring.
Kombucha has increased in sales recently due to its perceived health benefits. It is a good source of probiotics, which provide your gut with healthy bacteria.
Probiotics are associated with various health benefits, including digestive health, weight loss and potentially even helping reduce systemic inflammation.
You can find another Form of Kombucha that does go through the extensive fermentation process and thus has a little different mock up, but we’ll get to that soon!!
Is kombucha safe for your baby?
Kombucha has caffeine in it. Babies have a caffeine half life of 48-72 hours. In adults, it takes 8 hours for half of our caffeine to break down. Basically, it means that any caffeine your baby is exposed to, it will take at least 2-3 days to break down half of it.
Now, how much caffeine goes into your milk will depend on your physiology and also the amount of caffeine you’ve ingested. And how your baby will respond to that caffeine will also depend on your baby’s physiology too.
If you drink a kombucha, and your baby is irritable afterwards, then it’s likely kombucha is not a good idea.
Kombucha and adrenal fatigue
If you’re craving kombucha in the way someone might crave coffee, then you might be using it in an unhealthy way. Kombucha stimulates the adrenals to produce additional cortisol, which your body might want if you’re sleep deprived or exhausted from being a mother. However, if this is the case it will further stress the adrenals and potentially lead to adrenal fatigue. This is where the adrenals are forced to produce high amounts of cortisol for prolonged periods of time that the reach the point of fatigue and cannot produce enough cortisol.
If you have had a stressful pregnancy, or diagnosed adrenal fatigue before/during pregnancy, this will impact your baby’s ability to handle stress. Why am I telling you this? Because then if you consider what kombucha is doing to your baby’s body, triggering some adrenal release of cortisol, if their body is already stressed from the pregnancy, is it possible that their system could easily get fatigued adrenals from small amounts of caffeine in the milk? This is my wondering, as I have noticed in practice that helping irritability in babies has better outcomes when I work with both mother and baby. There’s an undeniable connection between mother and baby that needs to be honoured.
Does Kombucha make you detox?
If you’re brand new to kombucha drinking, it can make you detox. As with anything fermented, it alters the state of your gut bacteria, and any changes can trigger some detox in your body.
While you’re breastfeeding, this detox can be passed via the milk to your baby. While breastfeeding advocates would suggest only a small amount will transfer via milk, the reality is, a little bit is a LOT for a little baby.
So if your baby becomes irritable after you drink Kombucha, and you’re confident it’s not the caffeine, it could actually be some detox!