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Dietary Tips for Nursing Mothers

Significant hormonal shifts go on in your body when your milk comes in for the first time, and this is often compounded by difficulties in establishing a nursing routine. Midwives jokingly refer to the forgetfulness and moodiness many new mothers experience as "milk-brain." Some women become weepy during this time. Be patient and expect the nursing relationship to take a few weeks to establish.

Avoid acidic and gas-producing foods for the first few weeks postpartum. Colic – inconsolable crying that can last for hours at a time – has been linked to gastrointestinal distress, and often responds well to the elimination of certain foods from the nursing mother's diet. To be on the safe side, avoid all of the following in the first month to three months of your baby's life:

• Alcohol.

• Brewer's yeast.

• Carbonated beverages.

• Chocolate and other caffeine-containing foods.

• Most dairy products and other foods containing lactose (milk sugar). Hard cheeses, butter, and yogurt with live cultures have very little to no lactose, and should be all right as long as you are not allergic to the milk protein casein.

• Gas-forming vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and the like).

• Oranges and orange juice.

• Strawberries.

After those initial weeks, you can try having these foods again, one at a time, to see if your baby reacts to them. Add only one food back every two or three days so that you can discern your baby's reaction easily. If he becomes colicky or develops a skin rash or redness around his anus, he may have a sensitivity to the food. If that happens, wait a few more weeks before trying it again. By the time your baby is about three months old, his digestive system should be mature enough to deal with most of the foods you eat. However, acidic fruits such as oranges and strawberries could cause your baby to develop rashes for as long as he is nursing. If your baby is colicky in spite of your having eliminated all the above foods, try eliminating all grains except rice for a week to see if that helps. Some babies react to foods that contain gluten, a protein found in wheat, oats, rye, amaranth, and spelt.

A sad truth is that mother's milk is laced with the chemicals that all human beings are exposed to. Dioxins and other chemicals are stored in fatty breast tissue and enter your baby's body when she nurses. While this is a terrible fact of life for the new mother to face, it should not change your mind about breastfeeding. Breast milk is still the perfect food for babies, and no formula manufacturer can match it.

If you need to boost your milk production, try an old folk remedy that many European women still use: Go to a pub and order up a pint of the darkest beer they have. (Or have your partner bring home a six-pack.) No one really knows exactly why beer helps with nursing, but many mothers will attest to its effectiveness – and as long as you have only one beer, a nursing baby should not be harmed by the alcohol it contains. Herbs such as goat's rue and blessed thistle also help increase milk production. Deep green leafy vegetables can support increased milk production as well. If these veggies don't agree with your baby, try taking small amounts of concentrated sources of green nutrients such as chlorella or liquid chlorophyll.

Diet, Breastfeeding, and Weight Loss
The average mother loses about ten to twenty pounds the first four weeks postpartum, then about one and a half pounds a month in the span of the next four to six months. Contrary to popular belief, not all research shows a difference between nursing and bottle-feeding mothers when it comes to weight loss. Women are often told that they will lose their pregnancy weight faster if they nurse, but some studies show that nursing mothers actually hold on to excess weight a bit longer, because they need that extra five or so pounds to make sufficient milk for their babies.

Nursing mothers need about 500 extra calories a day. If you follow the postpartum guidelines supplied here, your body will tell you how much to eat and what foods to include. You won't need to count calories or measure out servings to ensure that your baby is getting what he needs and that your nutrient stores are being built back up. Don't try to decrease your fat intake, but do pay attention to the type of fat you are eating.