How to Eat While Breast-Feeding

Video Transcript

"Congratulations, you have a baby and you've chosen to breast feed. My name is Beverly Bitterman, ARNP, Health and Wellness Consultant, and I'm here to talk to you about some tips and strategies for eating a healthy diet while you're breastfeeding, to make sure that your baby gets the best possible nutrition. One of the first things to pay attention to is water. You want to make sure that you get enough water. And, the recommendation is still an ounce of water for every two pounds of your body weight. When you sit down to nourish your baby, have a glass of water with you. That can be a great way to make sure that you're in the habit of getting plenty of water. The other thing that you're probably wanting to know is what foods should I avoid. Well, of course, you want to avoid caffeine and alcohol. If you find that you have an occasional party to go to and you'd like to have a glass of wine, what you might want to do is feed your baby before you go, or pump your breast before you go and then the next time that would be the feeding, you would want to express that milk and throw it out and supplement with something that you've pumped earlier, or with a commercial formula, because you don't want your baby to get that milk, when you've had alcohol in your body. The other thing to look at is if your baby's having gassy kinds of symptoms, there may be certain foods that you can tie that back to. It may be things like gas forming foods for your own body, some of the cabbages and things like that, possibly nuts could cause gas. So, you want to pay attention to what causes that and of course, not eat that. Overall, you want to make sure that you're eating a really healthy diet. You want to make sure that you get protein, that you get carbohydrates, and whole grains in terms of the carbohydrates are best. Avoid empty calories, make sure that you're getting plenty of fruits and vegetables for the vitamins that they bring. And, you want to make sure that you're eating a normal amount of calories. You can eat up to about five hundred calories more than you would typically, because you're using that in the breast milk, and you might also find that breastfeeding is a great way to lose weight naturally, after you have a baby. Again, My name is Beverly Bitterman, Health and Wellness Consultant, and I wish you great luck with your new baby."