The period when a woman breastfeeds a child is especially important and responsible. A nursing mother should carefully monitor her health, follow the rules of personal hygiene, and eat properly and fully. After all, all the substances from the products included in the menu of a nursing mother, with her milk, pass to the baby, whose gastrointestinal tract has not yet been formed. When choosing dishes for her daily menu, a woman must adhere to certain principles.

Basic principles of nutrition for a nursing mother

1. During lactation, you do not need to diet. Enough to eat right.

2. The nutrition of a nursing woman should be balanced, rich in nutrition and energy.

3. A woman should choose only fresh and high-quality products for her menu.

4. For cooking, the mother of the baby must choose the most gentle way.

5. A woman during lactation needs to eat fractionally and regularly.

6. From your menu during breastfeeding, exclude foods that are potentially dangerous for the baby, which can cause him poisoning, disorders in the gastrointestinal tract or allergies.

A woman who is breastfeeding should pay attention to foods that increase milk production.

Daily caloric intake for a breastfeeding mother

During childbearing and lactation, the quantity and quality of food consumed by a woman naturally changes. But the fact that the expectant or nursing mother should eat literally twice as much for herself and for the baby is a common misconception. How high-calorie should be breastfeeding food so that the woman has enough energy and the baby has milk? Let’s do some simple calculations. The caloric intake for a woman of childbearing age ranges from 2300 kcal to 2600 kcal and depends on – race, height, lifestyle. Lactation is an energy-intensive process, which consumes approximately 500-700 kcal per day. It turns out that the calorie norm of the daily menu of a woman who is breastfeeding should be no more than 3,300 kcal.

The nutritional value of a nursing mother’s diet

A breastfeeding diet involves eating nutritious, vitamin-rich foods. The nutritional composition of the foods that a nursing mother eats per day should be something like this:

proteins – 120-130 g (more than half of animal origin);
vegetable and animal fats – 100-110 g;
carbohydrates – up to 0.5 kg.
Together with food or as part of multivitamin complexes, the following vitamins should enter the body of a nursing mother daily:

Vitamin A, or retinol, in the amount of 1.5 mg. This vitamin is necessary for the child for the growth of bone tissue and the development of the organs of vision. It will allow mom to preserve the beauty of the skin and hair during lactation.
B vitamins: B1 – 15-20 mg, B2 and B6 – 2.2 mg, B12 – 4 mcg. This vitamin group is involved in almost all metabolic processes of the mother and child, normalizes the functioning of the nervous, circulatory and other systems.
PP or nicotinic acid, – about 20 mg. It helps to strengthen the heart muscle and the walls of blood vessels, normalizes blood pressure, and affects the functioning of muscles.
Vitamin C or ascorbic acid, – 100 mcg. Vitamin C is necessary to increase the body’s resistance and the formation of immunity to viruses and bacteria in a child.
Vitamin D – 500 IU. Its deficiency can lead to rickets.
Also, for the normal physiological and intellectual development of the child, it is important that the nursing mother consume daily in the required quantities – iron, iodine, magnesium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, and other micro and macro elements.

How to cook for a woman who is breastfeeding

Although vegetables and fruits retain the greatest benefits in their raw form, at least elementary heat treatment is required for a nursing mother. In this case, the risk that the baby will have any disorders in the digestive tract will be minimized. The most acceptable ways to prepare meals for a nursing mother are:

boiling;
baking;
extinguishing;
steam cooking.
It is absolutely impossible to eat a fried nursing mother.

Breastfeeding mother’s diet

In order for a woman to produce enough breast milk, she needs to eat fractionally – from 4 to 6 times a day. It is recommended to take a warm drink after each feeding. It is acceptable to have snacks between feedings.

Taboo for breastfeeding mom

The list of foods allowed during lactation is actually much longer than those that a nursing mother should not eat.

Do not use at all or use with caution:

alcoholic drinks, strong coffee, black and green tea;
fruit and vegetable juices that can cause an allergic reaction in a child;
Exotic fruits;
gluten-containing cereals – millet, wheat, barley, barley;
raw cabbage;
greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes;
onions and garlic in large quantities;
fat meat;
fatty dairy products;
sea ​​fish and seafood;
chicken eggs;
canned food of any kind;
sweet pastries;
cream confectionery;
chocolate.
How to increase lactation?

In order for a woman to produce sufficient breast milk, she is advised to practice an on-demand feeding regimen and not to neglect breastfeeding at night. Also, you should drink at least 2 liters of liquid per day in the form of mineral table water without gas, weak tea, herbal decoctions and compotes. The protein needed during lactation can be obtained from lean beef or turkey meat, low-fat cottage cheese, narine, fermented baked milk, kefir or yogurt, boiled quail eggs.

For the benefit of the baby

Breastfeeding is a process of close interaction between mother and baby. In order to eat properly during this difficult period, a woman should carefully monitor the reaction of the baby to the slightest changes in her menu and adjust them if necessary.