Breastfeeding Diet

Do you need a special breastfeeding diet? When you are breastfeeding your baby, a lot of people think that you need to eat certain foods to make sure the baby gets enough vitamins and minerals. In fact your body is very good at extracting the vitamins and minerals from any food that you have so you don’t really need to eat anything different to your usual balanced diet.

When you are pregnant your metabolism changes. Your body becomes much more efficient in taking what it needs from the food that you eat, and therefore you might have glossy hair and feel healthier than usual. That is because your body is taking more vitamins and minerals from your food than usual to make sure there is enough for your growing baby.  It also will increase your appetite so you can create stores of fat ready for when you breastfeed your baby.  There are some foods you need to avoid while you are pregnant but afterwards there isn’t a special breastfeeding diet that you need to go on.

There are some important things to remember when you are breasting feeding though.  Make sure that you don’t get dehydrated, as this can have an effect on your milk supply. Equally , although your body is good at taking what it needs from the food you eat, it doesn’t do it as efficiently when you are breastfeeding than when you are pregnant. Therefore you need to make sure you eat enough food so that there is plenty for your body to use.  When you are breastfeeding you might be tempted to try and lose weight, because you are likely to have put on weight during your pregnancy. Although eating a good diet can help you, you need to make sure you lose weight in a controlled way and don’t just stop eating.  Don’t try this in the early stages of breastfeeding, make sure your supply is well established before you attempt to lose weight. It is a good idea to wait until the baby is over 6 months old and they are able to have some solid food as well as your milk, When you do this just cut out a few of the more unhealthy foods in your diet such as fried foods, cakes, biscuits, sweets and fried salty snacks.  Don’t reduce portion size dramatically or cut out some foods altogether as you don’t want to reduce your babies supply of milk.

Eat a balanced diet.  Try to eat a good range of vitamins and minerals.  Your body may be depleted or iron or other vitamins and minerals after the birth of your baby so it is a good idea to make sure you have a good range of fruits and vegetables to make sure that your body has the chance to restock the depleted supply of those vitamins and minerals in your body.

So to conclude, you don’t need to change the way you eat in a major way when you are breastfeeding, but if there is such things as a breastfeeding diet it is to make sure you have a good healthy balance of foods and make sure you eat enough.