(c) Can Stock Photo / racorn
Congratulations! Now, when you are reading this post it probably means you have already delivered your baby. We are happy and excited that you came here to learn more about all of the possible things that you should know. If you have already started breastfeeding that you may also know that there are things you should try to escape eating for the first 4-6 months, because everything you eat goes to your child as well.
Also, if you are living with a big family, you may have probably heard a lot of things like: you shouldn’t eat strawberries, have more apple juice, don’t drink this or that thing etc. Most of those advices people give are right, however when you are constantly hearing them from different people, you are getting confused what to believe and what not to.
That is why we have prepared a basic 101 for your eating while you are breastfeeding.
Things to avoid
There is a bad news and good news: which one do you want me to start with? Should I go on with the bad news? Okay. You knew right, that there are things you should avoid? This is not something new. And well, that list unfortunately is not that small. Things you should avoid during the breastfeeding are:
Citrus fruits and sometimes their juices – those fruits can be oranges and grapefruit
Chocolate
Pineapple and strawberries
Some spices – though in some countries babies are being fed with food even spiced up after 4 months, however you should rather avoid having them before 6 months. Those spices can be: chili pepper, garlic or too much of onion, cinnamon and so on.
Some vegetables which are kind of gassy – for example, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers and cabbage.
Too much caffeine – A cup of coffee would probably be okay for you, however make sure you are having it couple of hours before you feed your baby. Make sure not to have too much of coffee or other things which contain caffeine, because that would highly impact on your baby’s sleep.
The main part of the things that you should avoid are mainly here because of some allergic effects they can have. During the first 4 to 6 months, babies are especially being effected easily, so avoiding those things would be really a good solution.
Time to have the good list
Oh and here is the good news, you still can have the other things that were not mentioned above. All you need to do is choosing the ones that are included into the healthy list of foods.
And those may include:
Fish – Choose mainly salmon and give your preference to the fish which is most common. Don’t try extraordinary things, to which your stomach is not used to.
Water – yes, drink it as much as you wish to.
Some not gassy vegetables – mostly the yellow ones and the ones with the green leaves.
Fruits – the ones which won’t have any allergenic symptoms.
Eggs – have eggs as a breakfast, because it’s not once that you may have read about the benefits that they have. Start your day with eggs and get your proteins right immediately.
What else you need now?
Most of all everything you eat should include in themselves a lot of proteins, Vitamin C, Calcium, Omega-3 (easy to be taken through fish). Include into your meal also foods which are rich with iron.
Are you wondering about alcohol?
We are being suspicious on this question: many doctors are drastically refusing the option of having alcohol during breastfeeding, however there are also doctors which include that option. It’s up to you to decide, however make sure you are not having it too much (maybe only 1 glass for the beginning?) and make sure you are not going to breastfeed for the next couple of hours after drinking something.
Hope this list will somehow help you and congratulations again!
