10-2-2009 - What to eat or not to eat while breastfeeding!!

My mood while writing this blog: waiting for baby to wake up

The Breastfeeding Diet

You're not finished eating for two quite yet — here's how to get the right nutrition to provide your baby with a liquid lunch (and breakfast, and dinner, and snacks…)

It's the couch potato's dream — burning up the calories of a five-mile run without leaving your lounge chair And guess what? That dream is your reality now that you're breastfeeding your little tater tot. It's true — milk production burns 500 calories a day, which means that when you're breastfeeding, you'll get to eat an extra 500 calories a day (up from your pre-pregnancy numbers) to meet that need.

Hello, potato chips? Not exactly. Quality matters as much as quantity, especially if you expect to stay vertical during those long postpartum days (and even longer nights). The good news is that you're an old pro at eating well — what with all the practice you've had for the past nine months during your pregnancy. The even better news is that eating well while breastfeeding is very much like eating well while expecting (see The Pregnancy Diet), with (best news of all) slightly more relaxed rules. You'll still be aiming for plenty of healthy foods and steering clear of the less healthy ones (though there's more leeway for indulgences). Plus, while calories definitely count, you still won't need to count them — just follow the Breastfeeding Diet as best you can:

What to eat. Like eating well during pregnancy, eating well while breastfeeding entails getting the right balance of good (and good for you) food. Try to get the following each day:

• Protein: three servings
• Calcium: five servings (that's an increase from your pregnancy requirement of four)
• Iron-rich foods: one or more servings
• Vitamin C: two servings
• Green leafy and yellow vegetables, yellow fruits: three to four servings
• Other fruits and veggies: one or more servings
• Whole-grain and other concentrated complex carbohydrates: three or more servings
• High-fat foods: small amounts — you don't need as much as you did during pregnancy (See What's in a Serving?)
• Eight cups of water, juice, or other noncaffeinated, nonalcoholic beverages
• DHA-rich foods to promote baby's brain growth (look for it in wild salmon and sardines, walnuts, as well as DHA-enriched eggs)
• Prenatal vitamin daily

What not to eat. Here's the great news: When you're breastfeeding, there's a lot more that can be on the menu than off. But (and here's the less great news), with caveats. It's fine to pop open the cork on that pinot noir you've been pining for (or flip the top on that ale you've been aching for) — but within limits (a couple of glasses a week, preferably taken right after you nurse, rather than before, to allow a couple of hours for the alcohol to metabolize and for far less to reach your baby). Time to pick up your coffee habit where you left off? Depends on how hefty your habit was — more than a cup or two of joe can make junior jittery (and keep you both from getting any sleep). And it's safe to reel in the sushi again, although you should continue to avoid high-mercury fish such as shark, tilefish, and mackerel, and to limit those that may contain moderate amounts of that heavy metal. (See A Fish Tale.)

What to watch out for. If you have a family history of allergies, it's probably wise to avoid peanuts and foods that contain them (and possibly other highly allergic foods, such as tree nuts — check with the doctor). Also watch out for herbs — even some seemingly innocuous herbal teas. (Stick to reliable brands and choose flavors that are considered safe during lactation, including orange spice, peppermint, raspberry, red bush, chamomile, and rosehip.) Read labels carefully to make sure other herbs haven't been added to the brew, and drink them only in moderation.And when it comes to sugar substitutes, aspartame is probably a better bet than saccharine (only tiny amounts of aspartame pass into breast milk), but Sucralose (Splenda) is considered safe and a good all-round, low-calorie sugar substitute.

What to watch your baby for. A few moms find that their own diet affects their babies' tummies and temperaments. While what you eat does indeed change the taste and smell of your milk (that happens for all mothers), that's actually a good thing, since it exposes your baby to many different flavors. But some babies can be sensitive to certain foods. If you suspect that something in your diet is turning baby off his or her feed (or turning his or her tummy), try eliminating the food for a few days to gauge the response. Some of the more common troublemakers are cow's milk, eggs, fish, citrus fruits, nuts, and wheat.