What on Earth can Breastfeeding Mums Eat
The other day I saw a list of foods a breastfeeding mother ‘should’ avoid. The list was long, a whole page. Mums were passing it onto each other willy nilly and drastically adapting their diets in a quest to conjure up the perfect no-cry baby. No spinach, peas, cabbage or gassy foods, they might give baby wind (impossible, breastmilk is made from what passes into the mum’s blood, not what’s in her tummy). Caffeine and dairy, nope, can’t have those either: ‘Just a soy decaf latte please, I’m breastfeeding’. Others wondered whether they should be breastfeeding at all if it meant cutting out simple pleasures like chocolate and coffee, or their pizza and beer ritual on Friday nights. It really isn’t meant to be that hard.
Babies in India whose mothers eat spicy curries every day do just fine. Babies in Germany where sauerkraut is a staple also do just fine. Women who eat greasy chips for breakfast, hamburgers for lunch, Chinese takeaway for dinner and snack on lollies and soft drinks all day will still be meeting their babies’ nutritional needs (even though they may feel crap because of all the junk they’ve put in their mouths, but that’s not my point). Exclusively breastfed babies in developing countries where the mum is malnourished also do very well while they are still nurslings. Get where I’m going here? And have you noticed the latest marketing trick in formula ads? They LOVE pointing out all the supposed dietary restrictions you have to endure when breastfeeding — and so perpetuating the myth that to successfully breastfeed, you have to miss out on all the foods you love and enjoy.
What about if you want to lose weight? Mums are told not to diet while breastfeeding, but think about it, if a starving woman in a third world country can make enough milk for her baby, then cutting a few calories isn’t going to greatly affect your supply. If you wanted to stick to healthy guidelines, aiming to lose about half a kilo a week is a sensible diet option, with no drastic side-effects to the energy levels of a new mum.
Just a few more food myths to bust. Avoiding common allergens like peanuts, wheat or dairy when you are breastfeeding doesn’t mean your child won’t develop allergies to these foods when they start eating themselves. And banned foods in pregnancy — soft cheeses, sushi and alcohol — if you’re breastfeeding, go for it! If you do pick up a food poisoning bug, you are not passing it to your baby directly via blood like you would if still attached via the umbilical cord, and the alcohol level from the odd ****tail is so diluted in the breastmilk, it’s hardly detectible.
Now I do have to put my little disclaimer here at the end. Yes, there ARE some babies who have food sensitivities, and since everything you eat and drink passes through to your baby via your milk, it is possible they can cause bubs to be unsettled. But this is unlikely and not the norm. If you do have a baby who is crying A LOT, it’s worth exploring this option, but remember, it’s normal for babies and children to have one unsettled period every 24 hours (often called the witching hour) and changing your whole diet in these instances isn’t going to magically fix that. So be sensible people. Don’t blame breastfeeding for everything and have a chocky biscuit for me.
If you think your child IS sensitive to foods through your breastmilk, check out the Australian Breastfeeding Association website:
http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/restless.html
