Attachment Parenting

Eating For Breastfeeding

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Breastmilk provides all the nutrients a baby needs for healthy development. The following is some advice on eating a varied and balanced diet to help keep you and your baby healthy when you’re breastfeeding.

Many breastfeeding mothers worry about what food they should be eating. The answer is simple; your diet should be varied.Everyone knows about the importance of eating fresh fruit and vegetables; this is more so for a breastfeeding mother. A nursing mother should aim to eat 5 portions each day. In addition to eating five portions, a mother should vary the fruit and vegetables she eats to maximize the nutritional variety she gets on a daily basis.

Starchy foods are important as they will help give you energy. Being a mother of a young child can be exhausting, so you need all the energy you can get. Starchy foods include bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and legumes.

After childbirth many women experience bowel problems and can find constipation particularly painful. Fiber can help ease or eliminate both of the conditions. Fiber can be found in wholegrain bread, pasta, rice, legumes, fruit and vegetables.

Protein is essential for the baby’s muscle development. Sources of protein include lean meat, chicken and fish - you should try for at least two servings of fish a week, including one of oily fish. Eggs and legumes (such as beans and lentils) are another good source of protein.

Calcium is vital in maintaining healthy bones for both mother and her breastfed child. Dairy foods such as milk, cheese and yogurt contain plenty of calcium. Remember, there’s just as mush calcium in skimmed or semi-skimmed milk as there is in full-fat milk. Non-milk calcium foods include sardines, tofu, figs, almonds, cooked spinach and tahini paste.

There are some foods you should avoid when breastfeeding. Eating shark, swordfish and marlin is best avoided and you should limit the amount of tuna you eat. Don’t eat more than one tuna steak a week or two medium-sized cans of tuna a week. All women who are trying to conceive, pregnant or lactating should be careful of the fish they consume because of the danger of mercury contamination. Some of the mercury in the fish you eat will pass into your breastmilk and high levels of mercury can harm a very young baby’s developing nervous system.

If you're breastfeeding you should take 10 micrograms of vitamin D. This vitamin can be produced by the body but only when your skin is exposed to constant sunshine. If you have any doubts or questions, consult your doctor.

Author: Robin OBrien
About the author:
>Follow the links to find out more about a healthy breastfeeding diet. Also learn about the benefits of breastfeeding as well as advice on what is the best nursing bra.

Buy the book: The New Breastfeeding Diet Plan
Shop for Wild Alaskan Salmon

Sheryl’s comment:
Please do not feel compelled to drink milk just because you are pregnant or breastfeeding. I have had a natural aversion to milk most of my adult life but I began faithfully drinking it while pregnant because I believed it was the best thing for my baby (and my bones). My daughter was born with unrelenting, insane colic. She screamed for a good part of the first three weeks of her life. It must have been excruciating for her and it was no picnic for me either. Only other parents of truly colicky babies will know what I am talking about.

In desperation I tried an elimination diet and my daughter’s screaming stopped the day after I stopped eating all dairy. The next day. To this day she has digestion problems when she eats dairy. People do not need to drink milk to make milk. That is absurd, otherwise cows would be drinking giraffe milk in order to lactate.

The pasteurized, homogenized, reduced fat, antibiotic and pesticide laden milk on grocery shelves causes health problems rather than preventing or curing them. Unless you have access to organic, raw, pasture fed cow or goats milk, then trust me, there are plenty of safer, healthier places to find calcium.

In addition: Get your Vitamin D from sunshine in the summer and Cod Liver Oil in the winter. It is a tragedy to avoid fish because of mercury. Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers need Omega 3 oil and fish is an excellent source. Seek out certified mercury free Wild Alaskan Salmon and eat it every day if you want to. Lastly, Continue taking your food based prenatal vitamin to fill in your nutritional gaps.

Image Source: http://flickr.com/photos/mylor/323057778/

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