Eating For Breastfeeding
Author: David Riewe

In your third trimester, your baby was old enough to start
getting a taste of the foods his or her mommy likes. Now that
your baby is here and you're breast feeding, your baby will get
an even better taste of your favorite food.

Typically if you are nursing your baby you should produce
anywhere from 23 to 27 ounces of milk a day. In order to do
this, you need to increase your calorie intake by about 500 more
a day.

You also have to increase your water consumption to at least 2
1/2 to 3 quarts of water a day. You may notice that you are
thirstier during nursing session. This is because the water you
drink goes right to milk production. Try not to drink more than
3 quarts of water a day. Anything more than 3 quarts can reduce
the amount of milk your body produces.

As stated earlier, you need to up your calorie intake. Plan to
take in about 2500 calories a day or more if you are planning to
nurse for longer than three months. These extra calories should
not come from junk food. Junk food and sweets are just empty
calories and offer no nutritional value to you or your baby. Eat
more protein. A good rule of thumb is to eat 1 gram of protein
each day for every pound you weigh. If you weigh 150, aim to eat
150grams of protein a day.

If you were not doing so during pregnancy, adopt the six meals
a day program. Eat breakfast, a midday snack, lunch, a mid
afternoon snack, dinner and a night time snack. Your body is
going to be making milk continually so it is a good idea to keep
it charged with calories through out the day.

There are some foods you might want to avoid during pregnancy.
Pretty much everything passes through breast milk and to the
baby. This is why the first thing pediatricians advise nursing
moms to do when their baby has colic is to look at what they are
eating. Chocolate has been blamed in many cases of colic and can
cause an upset tummy for most babies. f you have a baby with a
tummy ache think back to see if you had a candy bar or even a
cookie in the hours before you nursed. The best advice is to
stay away from chocolate while you are nursing.

Stay away from greasy and spicy foods while you are
breastfeeding. Greasy foods sometimes upset adults stomachs,
imagine what it would do to your baby's immature stomach? Wait
until your baby is older and no longer nursing before you start
making trips back to McDonalds.

You may also want to stay away from garlic and onions while you
are breast feeding. Both of these can flavor the breast milk and
you may find that your little one will not nurse if you have
eaten these. Your little one may be just a tad too young to
appreciate the taste of garlic and onions anyway. Remember it
takes a few hours for the food you eat to make its way into your
breast milk. You may have eaten one of these foods right before
you nurse and see your baby is fine but by either the following
nursing session or the one after you might find your baby having
a reaction then.

Your breast milk does not only taste like what you eat, but
also what you drink. Just as with pregnancy, you should stay
away from a lot of caffeine while breastfeeding. You might need
some coffee or caffeine filled soda to keep you functioning and
a cup or two will not hurt you or your baby, but too much could
have disastrous effects. Just as we experience the jitters and
shakes from too much caffeine, your baby does also. Keep your
caffeine down to a minimum.

You have made an excellent choice breastfeeding your baby. Keep
it up by making good choices as to what you eat.


About The Author: David Riewe is the Editor of Daves Health
Buzz. Daves Health Buzz covers a wide variety of health and
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