A Look at Health and Diet

The nutritional needs for the baby will rely solely on breast milk, and therefore the mother will need to maintain a healthy diet. If the baby is large and rapidly growing stores of fat gained by the mother during pregnancy can be depleted quickly, meaning it may have difficulty eating enough good to maintain and develop sufficient amounts of milk. This type of diet normally involves a high calorie, high nutrition food, which follows that of pregnancy. While mothers in famine conditions can produce milk with nutritional content, a mother who is malnourished may produce milk with lack of vitamins A, D, B6 and B12. If they smoke, breastfeeding should exercise extreme caution. More than 20 cigarettes per day has been shown to reduce the milk supply and cause vomiting, diarrhea, rapid heartbeat, and agitation in infants. SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) is more common in babies who are exposed to smoke. Alcohol abuse is also known to affect the imfant and yourself. If you are breastfeeding, you should avoid drinking alcohol or very small quantities at a time. Excessive consumption of alcohol by the mother can cause irritability, insomnia, and increased infant feeding. Moderate use, normally 1 to 2 cups a day normally produces no effect. Therefore, nursing mothers should avoid or limit caffeine intake of it. By following a healthy diet and limit your consumption of the above, make sure your baby gets the right nutrients during your time of breastfeeding. This stage of life is very important – you do not want anything happen to your baby.