Breastfeeding diet: which foods to prefer and which to avoid?
One of the questions that most troubles a new mother is: which diet to follow to facilitate milk secretion? Breastfeeding is a very delicate moment for both mother and baby, but it is very important to dedicate oneself to this practice to ensure the baby all the nutritional principles of an irreplaceable food such as breast milk.
Through breastfeeding, the mother also passes all the antibodies necessary for the baby to grow strong and healthy, avoiding annoying childhood diseases such as otitis, gastroenteritis and others.
Before continuing to read, discover in this short video all the foods to watch out for during pregnancy.
Does diet affect the amount of milk produced?
Let's start by saying that milk production does not depend exclusively on the mother, there are a series of genetic and hormonal factors to take into consideration, and it is therefore useless to feel guilty in the event that, after childbirth, the milk does not arrive and you do not manage to breastfeed your baby. Find out how to remedy with artificial feeding.
What has the greatest influence in this act is precisely the suckling by the infant which will therefore stimulate the production of new milk. production.
During breastfeeding, the mother must pay particular attention to the diet she follows, but it is important not to make the diet to be followed an obsession and above all not to fixate on certain foods that "are said" to increase milk supply.
In the next paragraph we draw up a list of foods to be consumed already during pregnancy and to keep after childbirth.
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What to eat while breastfeeding?
The diet of the woman during breastfeeding inevitably changes. First of all, it increases the caloric requirement by about 200kcal of the total calories: an adult woman with an average build generally takes 2100/2200 kcal.
Therefore, dishes with a high caloric intake, but healthy are preferred. An example of a snack? Dried fruit to be introduced as a snack during the week. A handful of almonds, some walnuts or hazelnuts, pine nuts and so on, can be very tasty and nutritious, also ideal as a hunger breaker.
Fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, are essential and are used to supplement the minerals and precious vitamins throughout the breastfeeding phase. Their consumption should be divided during all meals of the day, trying, as far as possible, to insert large portions starting from breakfast.
Not to be overlooked is the consumption of blue fish which provides valuable fatty acids, meat (in moderation), eggs and legumes to balance the diet, also drawing on vegetable proteins.
Make sure to include in your weekly menus also portions of cheeses, they will be essential for the calcium intake in the baby's diet. Discover all foods rich in calcium.
The absolute best condiment for breastfeeding mothers is "olive oil": oleic acid is essential for the maturation of the infant's nervous system. Choose a quality extra virgin olive oil and then use it to season all your dishes.
Breastfeeding diet: how many liters of water per day to drink?
A separate chapter concerns water intake while breastfeeding. In general, it is always advisable to drink a lot, even reaching 2 liters of water in a day to deeply hydrate the body. What changes during breastfeeding? The need for water increases because a lot of fluids are lost through the outflow of breast milk (made up of 80% water).
Fruits and vegetables help in this sense, they are rich in water and support daily hydration, but this is not enough. Committing to drinking at least 2.5 liters a day can be a great result.
Remember: in summer you must expect a further increase up to 3 liters taken within 24 hours, as in the hot season, the human body is much more subject to loss of essential fluids for hydration.
Foods to avoid for the lactating diet
So far we have seen what are the tips for post-partum and how to balance the weekly menus. We have not yet talked about foods to avoid for mothers and babies that damage the body and are not healthy in general, even more so in the phase of breastfeeding. In some cases these are real eating behaviors:
- Avoid very elaborate preparations that are often high in saturated fat
- Choose caffeine-free drinks to avoid making the baby irritable
- Abolish alcohol and spirits: ethyl alcohol could inhibit the milk supply
- Reduce your wine consumption to one glass per week
- Eliminate beer, it can make breast milk bitter and unpleasant
- Do without chocolate, it contains caffeine that is exciting for the baby
- Replace some foods you usually consume (cabbage, garlic, onion, asparagus, peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, grapes, cherries, peaches, apricots, fermented cheeses, crustaceans, shellfish, game, cream or liqueur desserts, cocoa) with others with a more neutral taste that will not affect the taste of breast milk.
There are no precise laws, in general try to pay attention to the correlation between a food you have just eaten and the baby who refuses to eat.
In the months following breastfeeding, continue to follow a balanced meal plan - that's all you can do to stay fit and full of energy.
