Breastfeeding Support

• Slightly increased calories- approximately 500 a day. Makes sure these are from whole food sources and avoid processed foods as much as possible.

• eating regularly- sometimes every 3 hours ensuring you are having protein and complex carbohydrates.

Protein foods are meat, eggs, nuts, seeds, legumes, beans, hemp seed, fish, cheese.

Complex carbohydrates include brown rice, potatoes, sweet potato, wholemeal pasta, wholemeal bread, oats, lentils.

• Lots of water- 2-3 litres per day

• Iron rich foods include red meat, darker chicken meat, parsley, lentils, hommos, tahini, liver, oysters, green leafy vegies, dried apricots, cashews, egg yolk. If you are vegetarian or vegan, please ensure you are having a wide variety of plant-based food sources of iron and some vitamin C with an iron rich meal to optimise absorption.

• Calcium rich foods- tahini, sesame seeds, broccoli, almonds, oranges, fortified almond milk or soy milk, greek yoghurt, cheese, sardines with bones, bok choy, tofu.

• Omega 3- found in oily fish, especially tuna, salmon, sardines, chia seeds, walnuts, hemp seeds, flaxseeds (ideally ground)

• Zinc rich foods- pepitas, seeds, meat, oysters.

• Iodine rich foods- kelp, seaweed, fortified salt (in small amounts). Iodine is also fortified in some breads.

• B group vitamins- found in complex carbohydrate foods, vegetables.

• Avoiding alcohol

You may wish to continue to take a natal vitamin. A good quality one will provide B complex vitamins in higher doses (20-50mg), iron, zinc, calcium, iodine and activated folate. This may help to rebuild your reserves of these nutrients after the toll of a pregnancy, and labour.

One thing you may wish to consider is a strain-specific probiotic to take while you are breastfeeding or to add to your baby’s bottle. This is especially important for babies that are born via caesarean or who are given antibiotics early on or if you gave been given antibiotics in your pregnancy, labour or while breastfeeding.  Studies show that strain-specific probiotics such as the ones listed below may help decrease the incidence of atopic allergies, behavioural complaints and immunity problems. If you would like references for this, please contact me.

Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LGG®)

Bifidobacterium animalis ssp lactis (BB-12®)

Bifidobacterium breve (M-16v)

Bifidobacterium longum (BB536)

Herbal medicines while breastfeeding

Many herbs are not safe while breastfeeding. However, some have a special place for increasing milk supply or settling babies digestion.

Herbs that are helpful for increasing milk supply include:

Fenugreek

Blessed Thistle

“Herbs of Gold” make a product with these herbs in a tablet.

Helpful herbs that may also help baby’s digestion, that mum can take as a tea include: