To get the nutrients you need while breastfeeding, follow a healthy eating routine [PDF - 1.9 MB]. Choose a mix of healthy foods you enjoy from each food group, including: Whole fruits — like apples, berries, oranges, mango, and bananas.
It is a high-calorie fruit that will help with hunger pangs while breastfeeding and it helps to up your folic acid levels. What's more, potassium-packed bananas help nursing mums maintain their fluid and electrolyte levels, which can help maintain a good breast milk flow.
To prevent adverse reactions in the baby while breastfeeding, it's recommended to avoid consuming citrus fruits, cherries, and prunes. Citrus fruits have been associated with digestive problems, fussy behavior, vomiting, and diaper rash in breastfed babies.
Bananas are a great source of energy and should be consumed by breastfeeding women daily. If you like eating bananas, you can have 1 banana per day as a snack.
These nutrients are important for the mother's health as well as the baby's growth and development. Promotes lactation: Bananas contain a type of carbohydrate called fructooligosaccharides, which may help promote the growth of healthy gut bacteria in the mother and baby, potentially improving lactation.
Food sensitivities and gas in breastfed babies
Some moms swear that when they eat foods such as dairy products, broccoli, cabbage, bananas, eggs, or garlic, their babies are gassy and fussy for up to the next 24 hours.
Foods like beans, broccoli, cauliflower, or some dairy products can cause fussiness, gassiness, or colicky behavior in some babies. Foods like cow's milk, soy, wheat, corn, oats, eggs, nuts and peanuts, and fish or shellfish are common allergy-causing foods.
Specific fruits - such as apricots, rhubarb, prunes, melons, and peaches can cause a flare-up of colic for your baby, so avoid these fruits where possible if you have a baby that is sensitive to wind.
It also contains anandamide and two related compounds that stimulate cannabinoid receptors, tryptophan, and polyphenols. [1,2] All of these compounds are detectable in breastmilk in small amounts. Low intake of chocolate by a nursing mother is not problematic, but extreme amounts can affect the infant.
Avocados, full of healthy fats and fiber, are a great addition to your diet while breastfeeding. The fat in avocados help you and your baby absorb fat-soluble vitamins and can also be beneficial to your baby's developing brain health.
Apples are a rich source of many nutrients and help maintain an adequate milk supply. Apples give nursing mothers the energy they need to heal and provide the ideal development environment for their newborns.
Eating foods rich in vitamin C is therefore particularly important when you are breastfeeding. Zespri Green kiwifruit is one of the most highly concentrated sources of vitamin C, containing 85 mg per 100 g – that's even more vitamin C than oranges and strawberries!
While breastfeeding, calcium requirements increase significantly, so aim for five to six servings a day to meet the extra demands (1 serving = a glass of milk or pot of yogurt or 25g/1oz of cheese).
Include protein foods 2-3 times per day such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, beans, nuts and seeds. Eat three servings of vegetables, including dark green and yellow vegetables per day. Eat two servings of fruit per day. Include whole grains such as whole wheat breads, pasta, cereal and oatmeal in your daily diet.
Banana can be a trigger food for babies and toddlers who have FPIES (Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome), a type of delayed allergic reaction that can result in vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure, and dehydration a few hours after ingesting the food.
Bananas are a great first food to introduce to babies as they're easy to digest, already soft and mushy, and packed full of vitamins and minerals. You can also easily mix bananas with rice cereal that your baby might already be eating they are the perfect natural sweetener or just serve (mashed) bananas straight up.
Bananas are not known to affect breast milk production or supply (9). However, they may contribute to accentuating breast milk's quality when consumed as a part of a well-balanced maternal diet.
Your body produces more prolactin (the hormone that promotes milk production) when you breastfeed at night, so night feedings help to keep up milk production. As well, mothers vary in the amount of milk they can store in their breasts, so for many women night feedings are essential to meeting their babies' needs.