Healthy Diet Foods for Breastfeeding Moms

If you're like most moms, you're anxious to lose your baby weight as soon as you give birth. A great way to lose weight is to breastfeed your baby. Breastfeeding burns an additional 500 calories per day. It is important to eat the right foods while you're breastfeeding to make sure that you are getting proper nutrition while you're trying to lose weight.

Restoring Your Body

Your body has most likely been depleted of some important nutrient stores thanks to pregnancy. Now that you've given birth, it's important to replenish these nutrients. You will feel better and be able to give your baby more complete nutrition through your breast milk.

What to Eat

Eat a balanced diet. You should eat at least 1800 calories per day. If you eat too few calories, you will be tired, have poor milk production and lose weight too quickly (which also causes poor milk production).

Eat a diet rich in whole grains, lean protein, eggs, dairy products, beans, vegetables, fruits and nuts or seeds (if your pediatrician says it's okay). You should eat a little more protein than normal to help your body provide the protein that your baby needs. It will also help you feel full longer.

Whole grains provide fiber and other nutrients while also helping you feel full. Fruits and vegetables provide tons of important vitamins, minerals and fiber. It's best to eat either fresh or frozen fruits since canned fruits often have a lot of sugar added to them. Try to eat a lot of dark green leafy vegetables since these are especially high in nutrients, including calcium.

You can eat fish, but be careful not to eat it more than two or three times a week due to potential mercury contamination.

Foods to Limit or Avoid

You may want to avoid peanuts and peanut products while nursing although this hasn't been shown to completely prevent peanut allergies. You should limit your caffeine to only one or two cups a day. Also limit your alcoholic beverages. Try to drink any alcohol four hours before you'll be nursing again so the alcohol won't be excreted into your milk.

Pay Attention to Your Baby

Try to pay attention to what you're eating, especially if you start to notice that your baby has times when he is excessively gassy or uncomfortable. Some foods that are common triggers of discomfort are dairy products, garlic, beans, and broccoli. Talk to your doctor about cutting these foods out if you suspect they may be causing your baby discomfort.