Breastfeeding is undoubtedly the best method to feed your baby during the first six months of life. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recommend it exclusively.
In this period, as in pregnancy, to be able to breastfeed you must take care that your diet is adequate, since the composition of the milk can vary according to what you eat. Vitamin and mineral concentrations are usually low when maternal consumption is very low, the same goes for healthy proteins and fatty acids.
Surely you noticed, but during pregnancy your body accumulated extra reserves of fat, which will serve as energy for this new stage. Did you know that to produce 100 mL of milk you need 85 Kilocalories? This is why a healthy woman can lose up to half a kilo a week and, in turn, supply enough milk to keep her baby growing.
Now, what happens when fat stores are no longer enough? You need to increase your calorie intake. If you undergo rigorous diets, all you will achieve is that your body has no energy and stop breastfeeding.
Can a multivitamin help?
It is not only about energy, there are other essential nutrients that you should not neglect. It is normal that your life has changed with the arrival of your little one, now your days revolve around him and your work is more extensive. In fact, even if you take care of your diet, it is very difficult to cover all the vitamin and mineral requirements for your health and that of your baby. A multivitamin is ideal for not having to overwhelm you; However, you must remember that it will only be to complement your diet, yet you must eat varied, adequate and balanced.
According to Office of Dietary Supplements of the National Institute of Health, United States, women of reproductive age and pregnant women they can get benefits from multivitamins (Elevit It is an option that you can consider together with your pediatrician, because it has the prenatal multivitamin certification and the support of Bayer). This way they could cover the nutritional requirements that each one needs, as well as their babies.
For its part, the American Academy of Pediatrics considers that it is advisable to consume them during breastfeeding if you have the guidance of a specialist and if they benefit your health status.
Now, the women who most rightly need to consume a supplement are those who have suffered health problems, complications in pregnancy or who have some dietary restriction:
- Vegans and / or vegetarians
- Intolerant to specific foods
- That they have an eating disorder
- They suffer problems in the digestive system
- They had friends, twins or more children
Vitamins and minerals important to you
The nutrients that you need to eat during this period to maintain your state of well-being are:
Calcium: The calcium content in human milk is relatively constant regardless of what you consume. This happens because, when it is insufficient in your diet, the body is able to provide calcium from the bones in order to support milk production. But why compromise your health?
Iron: A healthy baby has adequate iron stores to grow to twice its birth weight. However, women who do not ingest enough iron may feel tired and are more likely to get infections.
Vitamins and minerals important for your baby
To strengthen the development of newborns, children need the following nutrients:
Zinc: A newborn baby does not have zinc stores, so he needs to obtain it from food. This mineral is better absorbed from breast milk, than from the infant formula.
Folic acid: It helps the baby's brain to develop normally, as well as to produce red and white blood cells. It is absorbed much better if it is synthetic than food, so even if you eat well, it is recommended that you take it before you get pregnant and during the entire period of breastfeeding.
Vitamin D: Lactating infants should ingest 400 IU of vitamin D each day, according to the aforementioned Office of Food Supplements of the National Institute of Health. And the little ones could get part of what they need from breast milk, but it can also be produced by their body when the newborn begins to be exposed to the sun's rays (30 minutes a week is more than enough).
Multivitamins, as mentioned Elevit, were created to help in the development of the baby by providing the necessary nutrients to the mother, so that she does not have a lack of food, but that her son does not present them either.
