Good nutrition is important for everyone. It is particularly
important for breastfeeding mothers to eat healthy, varied and well-balanced meals.
During pregnancy, body stores of certain nutrients such as iron, calcium and
vitamin D, can become depleted. Eating
healthy, balanced meals could help replenish these stores. If a poor diet is
consumed during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, the mother's nutrient stores
will be reduced which could in turn affect the nutrients supply to the baby. It is
therefore very important that a healthy diet plan is followed by pregnant and
nursing mothers so as to fulfill both their nutritional needs as well as that of their babies.
Making breast milk is hard work for the body. Energy requirements increase during lactation (it has been estimated that the energy cost of breastfeeding is around 650 kcal/day). Mothers
who exclusively breastfeed are said to require an extra 500 kcal/day on
average. Some of this energy is obtained from fat stored during pregnancy. There
are additional requirements for other nutrients, most of which can be met by eating
healthy balanced meals.
Some nutrient-dense foods a breastfeeding mum could eat include fish and other sea foods, meat, fruits and vegetables, nuts such as groundnuts and walnuts, as well as diary products such as milk, cheese, yogurt etc.
Nutrients in Breast Milk:
With the exception of vitamin D, breast milk contains
everything a baby requires for proper development during the first six months
of its life. The composition of breast milk is highly regulated, and a mother's diet can
have significant effects on the concentrations of some nutrients. If a mother's diet
does not provide sufficient amounts of nutrients, it can affect both the
quality of her breast milk as well as her own health.
Generally, an ounce (28 ml) of
breast milk is said to contain about 19–23 calories,
with 3.6–4.8% being from protein, 28.8–32.4% from fat and 26.8–31.2% from carbs, mostly
lactose. Unlike baby formula, the calorie content and composition of breast
milk varies. Breast milk changes during each feeding and throughout a mother's lactation period in order to meet her baby's nutrient needs. At the beginning of
a feeding session, the milk is more watery and usually quenches the baby's
thirst. The milk that comes later is thicker, higher in fat content and more
nutritious; and may contain 2–3
times as much fat as milk from the beginning of a feeding, and 7–11 more calories per ounce.
Therefore, to get to the most nutritious milk, it's important that a baby
"empties" one breast before switching to the other.
A new mum might be tempted to lose weight
quickly after delivery. It is completely normal to
not lose any weight, or even
gain some during the first 3 months of
breastfeeding. Due to hormonal changes in her body, a new mum may have a bigger
appetite and be more prone to holding on to body fat. Restricting calories too
much, especially during the first few months of breastfeeding, may decrease
both a mother's milk supply and her much-needed energy level.
However, she will likely experience a spontaneous increase
in fat burning after 3–6 months of
breastfeeding and start losing more weight than mothers who don't breastfeed. By
then, losing about 0.5 kg body weight per week through a combination of diet
and exercise should not affect her milk supply or milk composition, assuming
that she is not undernourished . All in all, a breastfeeding mum should remember that it took her body several months to put on the weight, and it may take months to
lose it.
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