Lactation diet

For a child, the main benefit of breast milk is not only its quantity, but also its quality. The protein level in breast milk does not depend on nutrition, but fats and carbohydrates may depend on the mother's diet.

The diet during lactation should be healthy and provide the female body with the necessary substances, since during this period the mother’s body needs them the most.

It is also important that a woman’s diet is varied and consists of vegetables, fruits, dairy products, milk, and meat.

But you should not overeat or abuse certain foods, since along with the beneficial substances, harmful ones can also enter the baby’s body through breast milk, which can provoke colic, increased gas formation, allergic reactions in the baby (honey, citrus fruits, chocolate, smoked foods, spicy foods, etc.).

You should also avoid overindulging in confectionery products and grapes, as such foods cause fermentation in the intestines and disrupt peristalsis.

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The essence of the diet during lactation

Breast milk is considered the ideal food for a newborn baby and to date, experts have not been able to create a formula that could completely replace breast milk.

Mother's milk contains all the most important substances for the growth and development of the child, it contains special proteins that help form immunity and reduce the risk of allergic reactions, infectious diseases, diabetes, and prevents the development of childhood obesity.

The undeveloped digestive system of newborns can easily cope with breast milk, and such nutrition also has a beneficial effect on the state (physiological, emotional, etc.).

Breastfeeding is useful not only for the child, but also for the mother, as it promotes a faster recovery after childbirth. When feeding, the woman's body produces a special hormone - oxytocin, which restores the tone of the uterus and improves blood circulation.

Only 2% of women are naturally unable to breastfeed, and the quantity or quality of milk does not depend on the shape or size of the breast.

In order to have a sufficient amount of milk that is good in nutritional value and beneficial for a woman, a special diet is recommended during lactation.

Diet for weight loss during lactation

It is almost impossible to lose weight immediately after the birth of a child. In the first 2-3 months, you cannot limit your diet, as the body needs strength to recover.

To lose weight gradually, you need to pay special attention to proper nutrition and light (as much as possible) physical exercise.

A lactation diet is needed not only to lose weight, but also to produce the required amount of milk with all the nutrients.

A strict diet during feeding is excluded, in this case frequent (5-6 times a day) meals in portions up to 250g are suitable. You need to drink a sufficient amount of water per day (up to 2 liters per day), as well as fresh juices, tea with milk, decoctions and infusions of herbs (fennel).

It is essential to consume milk and fermented milk products, but only fat-free or low-fat ones.

Also, don't forget about fruits and vegetables, which will help speed up the process of losing weight, improve the digestive system and energize the body for the day. Preference should be given to fish and porridge.

You need to remove from the diet (or reduce as much as possible) fatty, smoked, salty, spicy foods, as well as those products that can provoke allergies in the child, and partially replace sweets with dried fruits.

An approximate menu for a nursing woman may be as follows:

• For breakfast: whole grain bread or toast, yogurt, cottage cheese.
• Before lunch, you can have a snack of fruit salad and wash it down with tea with milk.
• For lunch: fish or vegetable soup, salad with fresh vegetables, boiled egg, freshly squeezed carrot juice.
• For an afternoon snack, salad with cheese and bran bread.
• For dinner, vegetable casserole, fruit, juice or tea.

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Diet to increase lactation

In some cases, the baby may not have enough mother's milk, and to increase lactation, you can try to adjust your diet.

Every day a woman needs to eat fermented milk products, vegetables, fruits, and meat.

It is necessary to limit as much as possible such products as chocolate, nuts, coffee, citrus fruits, honey, spicy foods (including garlic, onions), which are not only strong allergens, but can also worsen the taste of milk.

To increase milk production, the lactation diet should include certain products that promote this. First of all, these are tea, herbal infusions, carrot juice, dietary meat broths, fermented milk products (cottage cheese, fermented baked milk), watermelon, buckwheat, oatmeal, pine nuts, walnuts, almonds (limited, as allergies or increased gas formation in the child are possible).

For example, for breakfast you can have oatmeal with dried apricots and a few walnuts. In 3-4 days, there will be significantly more milk.

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Diet to improve lactation

First of all, it is worth saying that lactation depends on the amount of liquid drunk - a nursing woman needs to drink at least 2 liters of water. You can also improve the taste and quality of milk with fresh juices from carrots, currants, tea (black, green), herbs (fennel, lemon balm, oregano).

A lactation diet to improve the quality of milk must necessarily include oatmeal, which also improves blood circulation and normalizes blood pressure.

You can make not only porridge from oatmeal, but also various baked goods - cookies, muffins (you can also use oat flour).

Garlic can spoil the taste of milk, and the baby may refuse to eat, but in small quantities it helps improve the lactation process. Garlic can be added to ready-made dishes, such as meat or salads.

Carrots are a source of beta-carotene and carbohydrates, which promote milk production. You can include fresh carrot juices or carrot salad in your diet.

A few nuts a day will help improve the quality of milk and make it more nutritious for the baby. They contain fats and antioxidants, it is better to give preference to raw or lightly roasted nuts, without salt, spices and other flavor additives.

Sesame seeds also improve lactation. They can be added to salads, sprinkled on baked goods, or mixed with sugar and eaten as a dessert.

The most effective way to improve lactation is to eat lettuce. You can make a tasty and healthy salad with dill or parsley, season it with sour cream or oil, and add sesame seeds if desired.

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Buckwheat diet during lactation

During breastfeeding, doctors recommend following a certain diet, but rich in proteins, vegetables, and fruits. Of the cereals, it is better to give preference to buckwheat, rice, and corn.

The buckwheat diet is very strict and must be followed for two weeks. During the diet, you can only eat steamed buckwheat (pour 1 cup of buckwheat with 2 cups of boiling water, leave overnight), completely exclude salt, sugar, oil. During the day, the amount of buckwheat prepared in the evening must be eaten in 5-6 doses, it is allowed to drink no more than 1 liter of kefir (low-fat), you should also drink 2 liters of water per day.

The buckwheat diet helps you lose extra pounds (up to 10 kilograms in two weeks).

But, despite all the desire of a woman to get her figure in order, such a diet is contraindicated during lactation.

The nutritional properties of mother's milk largely depend on her diet, and buckwheat will give the mother's body the necessary amount of vitamins and microelements, but such a diet for two weeks can harm not only the fragile body of the mother, but also the child.

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Lactation Diet Menu

From the first days of feeding, a woman is recommended to increase the amount of liquid she drinks (up to approximately 2 – 2.5 liters).

Diet during lactation in the first 10 days:

• porridges and dietary soups from buckwheat, rice, corn group, oatmeal
• lean meat
• baked apples, bananas
• rosehip decoction, dried fruit compote.

Then gradually introduce cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt, cheese, boiled fish, eggs, pasta (limited),

From one month onwards, you can add homemade jam, dried fruits, nuts, vegetables and fruits (raw) to the menu.

From 3 months, vegetable juices, pearl barley and millet, fresh onions, and limited honey (with tea) are introduced.

Whole milk is contraindicated for children under six months.

An example menu might be as follows:

• For breakfast oatmeal or buckwheat with boiled veal, green tea with jam
• You can have a snack of cottage cheese with dried fruits, banana, or compote.
• For lunch: Lenten soup, stewed rabbit with vegetable ragout, apple, rosehip broth.
• For a snack, you can have boiled quail eggs, boiled beets with vegetable oil, fermented baked milk or kefir.
• For dinner, macaroni and cheese, baked fish, pear or apple.
• Before going to bed, you can drink kefir or yogurt with dry cookies.

Lactation Diet Recipes

Vegetable stew with pumpkin:

• 500g pumpkin, 1 carrot, 1 onion, green bell pepper, 2 small tomatoes, celery, greens, refined sunflower oil.

Wash and peel the prepared vegetables, finely chop the pumpkin, onion, tomatoes, pepper, and celery, and grate the carrots.

Fry onions and carrots in oil, then the remaining vegetables, pour in 200-300 ml of water and simmer until done, add a little salt. Sprinkle with herbs when serving.

Fish baked in foil:

• Lean fish (e.g. hake), onion, carrot, sour cream, salt.

Finely chop the onion, grate the carrots.

Place the fish on foil, lightly salt, brush with sour cream, put onions mixed with carrots on top, wrap carefully and bake for about half an hour at 180-2000C.

A lactation diet is necessary for both the woman and her child. Proper, complete nutrition will not only help you recover after childbirth, normalize your stool (after all, as you know, many women start having problems with stool during pregnancy), but also give your child the most useful food from the first days - your milk.

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What can you eat?

During lactation, the diet, as already mentioned, should be aimed at ensuring that the mother’s body produces a sufficient amount of milk, while at the same time ensuring that it is nutritious and, preferably, tasty.

It is generally accepted that during breastfeeding you can safely eat green foods, yellow foods should be eaten in limited quantities, and red foods should be completely avoided.

During lactation it is allowed:

• porridge (oatmeal, millet, pearl barley, buckwheat, rice, etc.)
• greens (dill, parsley, lettuce), onions in dishes (fresh only after three months)
• eggs (preferably quail)
• soups on diet broth
• fish
• nuts (except pistachios and peanuts)
• vegetables (fresh, baked, stewed, boiled)
• the bread is not fresh, with bran
• mild hard cheese
• dishes from quail, rabbit, turkey, chicken, veal, lean pork
• kefir, fermented baked milk, natural yogurt, cottage cheese
• fruits
• pasta (limited)
• From the age of 3 months, the mother can introduce honey into her diet
• Fresh juices can be drunk after three months, starting with a small amount
• compote, rosehip infusion, herbal teas (mint, lemon balm, chamomile, linden), green or weak black tea.

What shouldn't you eat?

Diet during lactation is an important part of the proper development of the baby, breast milk improves the digestion process and strengthens the newborn's immunity.

The future health of the baby depends on the mother's proper nutrition.

It is contraindicated to eat during this period:

• chicken eggs
• seafood
• honey
• cocoa, chocolate
• mushrooms
• exotic fruits (kiwi, pineapple), pomegranates, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, citrus fruits,
• hot sauces, marinades, pickles, smoked meats, spicy dishes
• canned food, products with dyes
• radish, radish, sauerkraut, suluguni cheese, feta cheese
• legumes (can be gradually introduced after six months)
• carbonated drinks, kvass
• alcohol