Make Your Breastfeeding Diet Work
For You and Your Baby

If you've chosen to nurse, your breastfeeding diet can impact your baby's well-being in more ways than one.

Good food choices can mean a boost in nutrients. Bad food choices can mean an aching tummy or blotchy skin for your baby.

But how do you determine what's good and what's bad? It really depends on you and your baby. Rather than starting out with a list of restrictions, try eating all of your favorite foods. Take note if your baby spits up more or has some other unpleasant reaction.

Eating more of the foods you love, may help you breastfeed longer if you desire to do so.

Foods You Want Plenty Of

• It's not a food, but water can make or break your breastfeeding diet. Experts recommend 10 eight oz. glasses a day. That amounts to a glass of water every time your baby feeds. Watch your urine and sense of thirst to determine if you need more or less.
  
  
• In The Breastfeeding Book: Everything You Need to Know About Nursing Your Child from Birth Through Weaning, Martha and William Sears, M.D. recommend the following 12 foods as part of a healthy breastfeeding diet:
  
  avocado, chickpeas, eggs, fish, flax seeds and flax oil, kidney beans, lentils, sweet potatoes, tofu, tomatoes, whole grains and yogurt.
• Each of these foods contained important nutrients such as protein, folic acid, fiber and other essential vitamins.
  
  Almonds, artichokes, broccoli, cantaloupe, orange, papaya, peanut butter, pink grapefruit, soy nuts, spinach, sunflower seeds and turkey also received an honorable mention.
  
  
• Take in about 500 extra calories a day. If you are nursing because you want the pounds to melt away, it doesn't and shouldn't happen overnight.
  
  The best thing for you and your baby is not to cut calories, but to exercise and be patient. Some bodies and metabolisms really do need 9 months to get rid of the baby weight.

Foods to Monitor While Nursing

You may be wondering if it's necessary to incorporate organic food into your diet while breastfeeding. In Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care, Alan Greene, MD says that while it is still a better choice than formula, a diet filled with chemically treated foods can impact the quality of the mother's breast milk.

That's right, cancer causing pesticides and immune system suppressing chemicals can get into breast milk and can even impact your ability to produce breast milk. So whenever possible choose certified organic foods in your breastfeeding diet, for you and your baby.