Breastfeeding mothers often worry about eating right as many would wonder if their diet is good enough to make sufficient milk. Your body is designed to make just enough milk for your little one according to supply and demand basis. The first 1000 days in life (from the time of conceive to celebrating a child 2 years old birthday), maternal diet can affect offspring and it can be an opportunity for intervention. Your body will make plenty of milk as long as you feed your baby on demand and even if you have more than one baby no matter what you eat. It is crucial to nourish your body to get enough nutrients you need especially the essential fatty acids, proteins, vitamin and mineral such as vitamin D and calcium.
Food provides us with nutrients and these nutrients stored in body in case we can’t eat right all the time. You don’t have to have a ‘perfect’ diet all the time and is totally all right to have occasional indulgence. When you do have a dessert do enjoy every bite of it and taste mindfully. Nutrient-dense food can be affordable and not necessarily to be expensive. To get the concept of nutrient-dense food, we can compare a glass of milk versus a glass of soda for instance. We get more nutrients from milk as comparison to soda that is loaded with empty calories and not much vitamins and minerals. Mothers with a wide variety of diets can enable babies’ transition better to complementary foods around 6 months and to family food at one year old. Eating nutrient-dense food will keep your body healthy while you breastfeed your baby.
Caring for a baby takes time, effort and energy (Nelson et al., 2005) and you may want to emphasis on taking care of yourself too. You do not need to spend a lot of time and effort to eat right as healthy eating can be quick, simple and fun too. Here are some ideas:
1. For snacks, add fruits and wholegrains cereals or granola to your yogurts or frozen berries to milk to make a smoothie.
2. For breakfast, add proteins and vegetables to your routine meehoon soup or our local nasi lemak can be a wholesome meal too with hard-boiled egg, blanched kangkung and watch the portion size.
3. Add dried berries to your cereal in the morning, beans and peas to your salad in the afternoon or evening.
4. Grab a handful of vegetables and a small portion of salad dressing and dip. Carrots, cucumber, cherry tomatoes don’t take any preparation. You can eat them with hummus that makes from chickpeas. A simple salad dressing will be balsamic vinegar or lemon juice with a little bit of olive oil.
5. Pre-cut your vegetables when you washed them home and you can prepare the next meal much faster when you want to.
6. Eat a bran muffin instead of donut or add some oat to your muffins.
7. Make your own trail mix with your favourite nuts and dried fruit as your afternoon snack and do watch the portion size. A small handful is a good source of protein, good fat and fiber.
8. Cook with sesame seeds for added aroma and crunchiness.
9. Sunflower seeds can be added to salad too.
10. More quick and easy nutrient-dense foods are apple, glass of fresh milk, egg, sandwiches on whole grain bread with cheese.
Remember it is always great to eat plenty fruits and vegetables. Fiber intake and short chain fatty acid that is produced in the gut system. Please remember to increase daily fiber intake such as fruits and vegetables, to enjoy a spectrum of health benefits such as glucose homeostasis, lipid metabolism (lowering the bad cholesterol: LDL), appetite regulation, tissue repair, IgA production (immune function), gut integrity/ mucus production, inhibition of inflammation/ NFkB, promotion of T-cell regulation, tolerance and etc. Fresh fruits and vegetables is best however when not available, eat frozen ones and you can store them until you want to use them (usually 3 months in the freezer).
Drink water when you are thirsty and when you are dehydrated you will be more easily tired. In time of stress, do remember to support a breastfeeding mother who is around you. You never know how much your support means to her even just a praise or a gentle gesture of taking a glass of water or just to let her to have at least 5-6 hours of sleep. Mother-centered support is essential to breastfeeding physiology and holistic postnatal care. It is the quality of the breastfeeding that matter, both the mother’s well-being and her relationship with her baby and her partner. Longer breastfeeding and reduced depression may be a marker for resilient specific genotype. Let’s us celebrate the new member in family and have a better coparenting relationship at home.
Reference:
Stuebe, A. (2020). Does Breastfeeding Reduce Stress or Does Stress Reduce Breastfeeding ? Breastfeeding Medicine, 15(11), 11–12. https://doi.org/10.1089/bfm.2020.29168.ams
Nelson, A., Bañuelos, J., Ishii, K. D., & Heinig, M. J. (2005). Eating for Two: You and Your Breastfeeding Baby. Journal of Human Lactation, 21(3), 359–360. https://doi.org/10.1177/089033440502100317
