How much to eat?
Breastfeeding requires extra calories. These extra calories will naturally be used for your milk production. The nutrition requirements for breastfeeding are similar to pregnancy, and women are recommended to continue eating similarly to how they were eating during their pregnancy. However, a breastfeeding woman needs 200 more calories per day than she did during pregnancy, and it is important that the calories come from nutritious foods.
1st6 months of lactation +550 kcal/day
2nd6 months of lactation +400 kcal/day
What to eat?
- Include protein foods 2-3 times per day such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, beans, nuts, and seeds.
- Eat three servings of vegetables, including dark green and yellow vegetables per day.
- Drink herbal drinks that increase milk production such as (fenugreek – aniseed and cinnamon)
- Eat two servings of fruit per day.
- Include whole grains such as whole wheat bread, pasta, cereal, and oatmeal in your daily diet.
- should drink at least 8 cups of water each day. Have a glass of water each time you nurse your baby. In addition to water, other good liquids are juice, milk, herb teas, and soups.
Sharing with baby through milk
DocasaHexanenoic Acid (DHA) is an important omega-3 fatty acid needed by babies for brain development. You can boost the DHA in your milk by eating fish 2-3 times per week. The best sources of DHA are salmon, bluefish, bass, trout, flounder, and tuna. Do not eat tilefish, swordfish, shark, and king mackerel because contain high levels of mercury.
Spicy and gas-producing foods are normally tolerated by most babies. If you find your baby is often gassy or colicky and has increased diarrhea after you eat a particular food, try avoiding that food for several weeks and see if the symptoms go away. Then try the food again to see if you still need to avoid it.
Limit foods and drinks that contain a high caffeine content.
The colors of the foods you eat, including naturally occurring pigments in vegetables and herbal supplements or food dyes added to foods, may change the color of your milk.
