The usual lifestyle of the family changes after the birth of the child. Along with pleasant cares, additional responsibilities and restrictions appear. The diet of a nursing mother is a necessary measure that will help maintain the physical and mental health of the woman who has given birth and the baby.
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Basic principles of postpartum diet
A young mother wants the newborn not to be capricious, grow up healthy toddler and eat breast milk with benefit.
To do this, you need to take into account the simple nutritional rules of a nursing woman:
- Eat healthy foods. It's time to think about the right food. Nursing mother needs to be provided with vitamins, minerals and other necessary substances not only herself, but also the baby.
- Refuse harmful products. Breastfeeding is the time when junk food is prohibited. Products that contain dyes, flavor enhancers, flavored additives are completely excluded from the diet. It is necessary to adhere to a hypoallergenic diet, especially if there is a tendency to allergic reactions in a mother or a newborn. Chocolate, coffee, honey, citrus fruits, berries and red fruits, some types of cheeses, smoked meats can provoke the appearance of rashes within a few hours after their use. Allergens of protein origin accumulate in the body and cause skin problems in the baby after a couple of weeks. These include, for example, dairy and dairy products, eggs, nuts.
- Monitor the calorie content of food. When breastfeeding, you need additional energy, so you need enhanced nutrition.Women are often afraid to get better after giving birth if they eat more. But you can follow a diet for nursing mothers for weight loss and not gain extra pounds. A special diet is not needed. For this, the main thing is to use quality products and not overeat. This approach will help not only to maintain harmony, but also lose weight if necessary.
- Individual approach and consistency in diet planning. The diet of a nursing mother will vary by month. The first weeks after birth, the restrictions are quite strict, but gradually the menu is expanding. When the baby is less than a month old, a nursing woman introduces a new product every three days into her menu. Unusual ingredients begin to be consumed first in small portions. Then observe the reaction of the newborn. If all is well, then in the future you can already try a new dish every day, preferably in the first half.
- Fractional Nutrition. Servings are made small, but eat at least 4-5 times a day.
- A sufficient amount of fluid. Abundant drinking will help to establish lactation. A healthy adult needs to drink about two liters of water per day. During breastfeeding, liquids are consumed even more in the form of pure drinking water, green tea, unsweetened fruit drinks.
It is useful to keep a food diary so that you don’t miss anything and control the crumbs' reactions to different foods. They add their diet to it over the past day. Serving size and time of administration are noted. Changes in the condition of the child after the introduction of a new ingredient are recorded: colic, constipation or upset stools, changes in behavior.
What is this diet for?
A lactating woman has a choice. She can completely exclude some products from the menu or reduce their consumption.
If you do not adjust your diet during this period, the risk of such problems appears:
- Colic in the baby. With increased gas production in an infant, most parents face it. The newborn has a swollen, hard stomach, the crying of the child is loud and piercing, the baby is tightening its legs. With the elimination of colic, laying out the crumbs on the tummy before feeding, planting, massage, applying a warm diaper to the body helps. However, all these manipulations do not make sense if a woman does not limit herself in food;
- Diathesis in the baby. Rashes on the body cause discomfort and worsen the general condition.
The first weeks and months of life, the work of the gastrointestinal tract of the child is established, its immunity is formed. The baby’s body is very vulnerable, therefore, a woman’s improper diet at this time can cause future health problems for the baby. Mom’s tasty and nutritious milk is the best food for crumbs. And this indispensable food must be made as useful and safe as possible.
The postpartum diet also has a beneficial effect on mom. Proper nutrition will help to recover faster after pregnancy and childbirth, to maintain strength for caring for the baby, to fully relax and enjoy motherhood. A healthy nursing woman and a calm baby will create psychological comfort for all family members.
A young mother sometimes has health complications, disorders in the work of various organs. For example, hemorrhoids occur even in those women who previously did not know about such a delicate problem. A proper diet will help get rid of some complications at the initial stage of the disease.
Read also:What can a nursing mother eat?
Product Selection for Nursing Mom
Tasty, varied, healthy, fresh - a woman needs such food during breastfeeding. A table of allowed and prohibited products is shown below.
| Need to consume | Use with some restrictions. | Can not be consumed |
|---|---|---|
| Porridge. Better to start with buckwheat. Gradually, the range is expanded with rice, wheat, millet, semolina, pearl barley. | Flour: in a small amount of pasta, crackers from white bread. It is undesirable to eat fresh yeast baked goods. | Preservation, pickled vegetables, sauerkraut, legumes (peas, beans). |
| Low-fat meats: beef, chicken, rabbit, turkey. | Fruits and berries: little by little. With caution closer to the year from the birth of the baby: red fruits that often cause allergies (strawberries, raspberries) and exotic fruits. | Alcohol, carbonated drinks. |
| Fish meals. Already in the first month of life, crumbs can eat lean fish in baked form. Gradually, the fish menu is expanding, but it is better to refuse the use of crabs, shrimps and other seafood unusual for the body. | It is better to boil vegetables, stew, steam. You can: zucchini, potatoes. With caution: onions, garlic, cucumbers, grapes, cabbage, tomatoes, melon, radish, radish. | Sweets: jam, jam, culinary products. |
| Add a little quality vegetable and butter to cooked dishes. | Mild seasonings and spices can be a little when the child is 2 months old. | Sausages, smoked meats. |
| A sufficient amount of quality water without gas. | Sour-milk and dairy products are introduced into the diet in the absence of allergic reactions, eat a little. You can: low-fat cottage cheese, kefir, fermented baked milk, sour cream Not desirable: milk, especially raw and whole. | Mushrooms that put a big strain on the stomach are hard to digest. |
| Nuts are a fatty allergenic product. It is better to opt for peanuts, cashews, hazelnuts, when the child is six months old. | Any very fatty foods, fast food. |
Diet may vary depending on the specific situation. The table will look different if the baby is prone to diathesis or the mother has gastrointestinal problems.
Baby from 0 to 1 month
The main task of this period is to adapt the crumbs to the outside world and establish lactation.
In the first month of a newborn’s life, a young mother follows a strict diet:
- The diet uses lean meats: chicken, rabbit, turkey, beef. They use meat dishes boiled or stewed.
- Steamed vegetables or boiled. Better to start with zucchini, potatoes.
- Among the permitted fruits are bananas and apples in limited quantities. It is better to refrain from using the rest. It is good to eat baked apples.
- Flour products are used with caution. You can eat pasta, some crackers and biscuit cookies. Banned muffin, brown bread.
- Soups are cooked in vegetable broth.
- The menu must include porridge. Buckwheat is especially healthy. In the presence of constipation in the mother or child restrict the use of rice.
- It is better to replace dairy products with dairy and eat them in small portions. While it is desirable to limit yourself to kefir. If the baby is allergic to this group of products, a dairy-free diet may be needed.
You can restore fluid reserves in the body with good quality drinking water or weak green tea.
1 to 3 months old baby
The menu is expanded, taking into account the individual characteristics of the baby:
- Since that time, soups on vegetable broth are gradually replaced with first courses on meat broth.
- You can eat some pastries cooked at home.
- Gradually replenish the fruit diet, except for red fruits.
- Vegetables begin to be consumed not only processed, but also in raw form. Gradually add new species: pumpkin, carrots, beets and others.
- Different types of cereals are introduced. By the end of the third month of the baby’s life they eat semolina, millet, pearl barley, barley.
- Non-fat young pork is added to the permitted types of meat.
- For dessert, it is appropriate to cook jelly from the fruits introduced into the diet.
In addition to tea and water, they drink natural compotes from homemade fruits. First, apple, later - pear and other species. You can also quench your thirst with fruit drinks, for example, currant or cranberry.
By the age of three months, a nursing mother can eat natural honey of good quality (if the child does not have a tendency to allergies), low-fat sour cream, boiled onions.
Baby from 3 to 6 months
After a three-month “anniversary” of crumbs, familiar products gradually return to the mom’s menu. In addition to those that are on the prohibited list.
The menu looks like this:
- Vegetables in the diet are present almost all allowed, including chives. To refrain is only from garlic, cabbage, legumes.
- The fruit menu is becoming more plentiful, but it is too early to include citrus fruits and grapes in the diet.
- Happy time for sweet mom moms. You can eat marshmallows, marshmallows, low-fat homemade cakes, for example, biscuit cake for dessert. However, the time for chocolate has not come yet.
- To improve the taste of the first and second courses, it is appropriate to add a few simple spices, fresh herbs to the food.
- Some herbal teas are allowed.
The maximum benefit of the diet after childbirth will be, given the age and individual characteristics of your baby and observe the principles of nutrition during breastfeeding.
Menu from six months to 1 year
When the child is six months old, then the restrictions on food will remain even less.
Every day, the menu of a nursing mother approaches the composition usual for adults:
- You can please yourself with fried dishes.
- It is permissible to eat almost all fruits and vegetables.
- The diet includes chocolate, nuts, citrus fruits.
Closer to the first year of a son or daughter’s life, food restrictions will remain only for those women whose babies are prone to allergies. For everyone else, only food from the list of unauthorized products will be banned.
What Dr. Komarovsky recommends
Authoritative in "children's" issues, Dr. Komarovsky believes that the main thing for a nursing mother is a positive attitude and good health. He is against any diets for women during this period and advises not to change food after childbirth.
Komarovsky recommends that you do not eat new products at this time, exclude alcohol, limit caffeine use and in no case do not starve. The doctor suggests that you definitely include seafood in the menu (at least 300 g per week), eat varied, drink plenty of fluids and monitor the baby’s reaction to any product in the mother’s diet.
