When you have that newborn, you have to pick and choose.
Do I shower, do I take a nap, or do I eat?
and you will often ask yourself that question a lot in a 24 hour period - you have to eat during that day.
While breastfeeding you want to continue to eat a healthy diet much like you did while you were pregnant.
You want to try to keep your calories up so that you have the energy to keep up with your growing baby.
and you also want to avoid toxins commonly found in many foods.
So you want to choose organic fruits and vegetables as often as you can.
You want to eat grass fed organic meats when possible
And when selecting canned goods, many companies still line the cans with BPA
So you want to look for those companies that have removed BPA from the cans & select those items
The way to know if a can is BPA-free is to go on the internet and search.
Companies are changing year-to-year as to whether or not they are removing the BPA from the lining of those cans.
While you are breastfeeding you want to continue to avoid, just as when you were pregnant, caffeinated beverages.
You do not want to eat foods that are high in sugar.
You want to minimize or eliminate alcoholic beverages that you may drink.
And certain foods that you don't normally eat won't agree with your baby - so you want to maintain a healthy diet …
… foods that you are accustomed to eating.
And if you find that your baby is fussy one day, you may want to look at what you have eaten, and see if it was something in your diet that is affecting the baby.
Anything that I know that could possibly produce gas for him, like broccoli or things of that nature, I still have, but I limit it.
They say that what you eat the baby will eat, and I try to eat healthy and organic so the baby will get the same thing I am getting.
You want to make sure you are getting tons of water, fruits and vegetables, a balanced meal into your diet.
In a perfect world, you are going to be eating 3 balanced meals a day.
But when you have a newborn, it's not a perfect world. You want to make sure you get at least one balanced meal in your day.
Whatever I eat, I know he eats.
And those snacky foods that you have in the house that you find yourself relying on…
you want to make sure that they are cut up fruit, cut up vegetables, maybe some cut up cheese and whole grain crackers …
… and foods that will give you real energy - and not the cookies and not the chips, you want to really stay away from that.
Focus on the whole foods that are going to make you feel whole.
Breastmilk is comprised mostly of water so it pulls a lot of water from you - therefore leaving you more parched and thirsty.
So listen to your body and follow its cues and what it is telling you.
You want to make sure you get plenty of water, you should always have a glass of water nearby.
Especially while you are breastfeeding to keep yourself well hydrated.
How much water should you be drinking? There is no definitive answer to that.
The standard "8 glasses a day" that we should be drinking as a non-pregnant individual or a non-nursing mom …
That is hard enough for some of us to get in.
And that 8 glasses is give-or-take based on how many fruits and vegetables you have had that day because those are water based foods.
So even that 8 glasses is flexible.
So I use 8 glasses as a barometer - sometimes your body is going to need more, and it will tell you that you need more.
And sometimes you get in what you can, but just make sure you focus on it - it's a priority.
Many fish are high in mercury - and that is transmitted through your milk to the baby.
So when selecting fish, you want to be sure you select those fish that are low in mercury.
The best way to do this is to go online and look at the fish you enjoy eating and be sure they do not have a high mercury content.
This goes also for canned fish. You want to look into that and make sure that the canned fish you enjoy eating does not have a high mercury content.