Woman Panics After Her Breast Milk Turns Pink

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Woman Panics After Her Breast Milk Turns Pink

Daily Mail

Your baby's health is of utmost importance, so if anything seems amiss, it's natural that you're going to freak out immediately.

A breastfeeding mother said she "nearly had a heart attack" when she noticed her breast milk had turned pink, but luckily there was a fascinating reason behind the dramatic change in color.

When you think of milk in general, the only color that comes to mind is white. In fact, milk can be all sorts of colors, depending on the mother's diet and the changing needs of development in the baby.

In terms of nutrition, if a mother consumes large amounts of food or drink containing food dyes, their breast milk can take on a hint of green, blue, yellow, or pink.

If the food is not bad, it's not huge cause for concern.

One Australian mother couldn't help but panic while feeding her 16-month-old daughter, who started acting unusually. When her daughter unlatched from her nipple, she squirted pink fluid. She was worried that her blood was mixing into her milk.

Fortunately she discovered that the pink color was from one of her favorite vegetables!

The mother, who has asked not to named, realized her breast milk was turning pink because of the large amount of beetroot she had eaten that day.

When she went to the bathroom, she noticed that her and her daughter's urine were also the same shade as the breast milk. She remembered that she had eaten a "salad sandwich" that had beetroot in it, and also fresh beet juice.

She first noticed the unusual color when her daughter kept pulling at her nipple asking for more. This wasn't her baby girl's usual behavior, so when she unlatched, the bright pink milk squirted out.

In the midst of a panic attack, she squeezed her breast milk in a cup to a have a better look, until she realized it was from her beetroot-heavy lunch.

She posted the photo of her breast milk on Facebook, with the caption, "Soooooo I ate A LOT of beetroot today and this was the end result..."

"Safe to say I nearly had a heart attack until I realized," she added.

Turns out, the breast milk tasted very sweet, which is probably why her infant daughter was begging for more.  

However, not everyone who saw the photo thought it was still safe for the woman's baby to drink the bright pink breast milk.

According to the Australian Breastfeeding Association website, "There is a wide range of normal when it comes to the color of breast milk. Most mothers are unaware of the color of their breast milk, unless they express."

The website explains that foods like beetroot, pumpkin, carrots, and leafy greens with concentrated color are known to affect the color of breast milk, and it's completely safe for a baby to drink.

Moojan has been a writer at Shared for a year. When she's not on the lookout for viral content, she's looking at cute animal photos. Reach her at moojan@shared.com.