“If you breastfeed, you have to eat super healthy, you’re tied up at home and you get saggy breasts…” – these prejudices are far from being eradicated. Enjoyable food and peaceful time off from family and work while breastfeeding, even chic looks are perfectly compatible with breastfeeding.
Some women give up breastfeeding because they want to return to work as quickly as possible. Here, too, there is advice and help: It takes about 6-8 weeks for mother and child to adjust to each other. After that, a trusted person can also look after the baby and feed it with expressed milk. However, mother, father and child are offered parental leave. There professional obligations can be confidently put on the back burner for a few months.
The right diet for nursing mothers
Breastfeeding mothers can eat what suits them. With coffee it may be three, with black tea up to six cups throughout the day. However, there are also very nervous babies; there it may be useful to abstain from caffeinated beverages for a while.
Every mother should observe her child carefully to find out what is good for him and what is not. For example, if a child reacts with a rash, it may help to simply omit a suspect food and see if it then gets better.
Additional energy and nutrient needs during breastfeeding
Additional energy requirements can be determined from the energy content of breast milk and from the energy consumption resulting from the production of milk components. A breastfeeding mother consumes about 650 kcal more than a nonbreastfeeding, nonpregnant woman of the same age and weight.
Today, it is believed that 400 to 500 kcal should come from food and the rest from fat reserves built up during pregnancy. This would result in an additional requirement of about 500 kcal. The additional protein requirement is covered by a daily additional intake of about 15 g protein. In total, a protein intake of 63 g protein per day is recommended, which corresponds to an increase of about 30 percent.
The vitamin and mineral requirements are shown in the following chart:
The additional nutrients required are supplied by the diet in the case of a balanced, healthy diet. This eliminates the need to take vitamin and mineral supplements.
If the mother’s diet is not sufficient in terms of quality and quantity, or if she has certain restrictions (lactose intolerance, low exposure to light, vegan women), it is advisable to take vital substances in tablet form. The arguments in favor of breastfeeding are convincing. The composition of breast milk has evolved during thousands of years to what it still is today: an amazing liquid that offers the best chances of survival to humans in the first months of life.
