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From building immunity to aiding optimum growth—good quality breast milk is most important for newborns.
2nd June, 2019
While we’re as smitten with Taimur Khan as the rest of India, we’re even more impressed with his mum, actress Kareena Kapoor-Khan, who lost her post-pregnancy weight just the right way—slow and steady without compromising on her health or that of her child as she was obviously lactating and breastfeeding soon after. Last month, the Duchess of Sussex (Meghan Markle) gave birth to a bonny baby girl, and if her personality is anything to go by, we quite see her going the Kareena way. Here’s why this topic is so important, especially in this day and age women are ready to hit the gym and get on drastic diets almost as soon as they give birth.
Breast milk is the most nutritious feed for the baby as, during lactation, it helps the newborn build immunity, and fight against infections and diseases. As such, multiple studies suggest that the babies should be breastfed exclusively for six months at least for optimum growth. However, as crucial as this phase is for babies, it is even more so for the moms, especially if they don’t consume the recommended amount of foods during this period. Lactating mothers, in fact, need 500 extra calories than the normal consumption and 18gm more protein than usual.
Here’s our guideline to help young mums eat right, and keep themselves and their babies healthy…
- First things first—no starvation or liquid diets when lactating. This could be dangerous for both you as well as your baby.
- The body requires extra protein, carbohydrate, fat, calcium, Vitamin ‘C’ and Vitamin ‘A’ as well most of the B-Complex vitamins during lactation to feed a fully developed growing infant, which is why you should follow a well-balanced diet to meet the extra demands.
- You should never skip your milk and pulse options.
- Make sure you include at least three vitamin ‘C’-rich raw foods in your diet like oranges, sweet lime, strawberry, guava, pineapple, papaya, kiwi, tomato, cabbage, capsicum, sprouted moong etc.
- Include at least two dark green leafy vegetables or orange vegetables or fruits in your daily diet to ensure you’ve absorbed enough Vitamin ‘A’. While papaya and mango are good fruit choices, carrots and pumpkin are good vegetable options.
- Greens of cauliflower, radish, fenugreek, amaranth (chawli) are very good, because besides containing Vitamin ‘A’, some of them are also rich in calcium and other minerals.
- Avoid fried foods as far as possible, and try including foods that are easily digestible.
- Drink fluids liberally in between meals as they are nutritious as well.
- Do not skip salads as these will help you avoid constipation issues.
- While feeding, ensure you sit in the correct posture and support your back to avoid backaches.
- When feeding, be in a relaxed mental state as stress inhibits the proper flow of the milk.
- There are certain foods that have been proved to be galactogogues (foods that improves secretion of milk). They are as follows: –
- Garlic
- Methi
- Satavari (commercial ayurvedic preparations available in the market as Sataverex, Satavari Kalpa, Shatauja etc)
