Nutrition Basics for Breastfeeding Moms
This post is sponsored by Similac.
We know that new moms have a lot a lot on their plates, but a new study shows they need to pay more attention to what’s on their plates. The diet of many nursing women may not contain enough of certain key nutrients for their baby.
A study of lactating women found that, “subjects consumed 50% or less of fruit, vegetable, and dairy intake as recommended by MyPlate.” Many diets are missing key nutrients such as:
- DHA: (docosahexaenoic acid) a fatty acid essential for a baby’s brain development
- Lutein: a component in breast milk that supports eye health
- Vitamin E: an important antioxidant to support developing cells
I had the opportunity to interview Abbott Research Scientist Christina Sherry who led the study about nutrition basics for breastfeeding moms. You can read the interview here or watch the short 3 minute clip.
At Abbott Nutrition we recently just conducted a study looking at the dietary intakes of lactating women. Surprisingly, many women don’t realize that their nutritional needs are the greatest during breastfeeding than any other time in their life, even when they were pregnant. And there’s very little information about what is mom eating, so that’s exactly what we looked at in our study. When we analyzed the diets of lactating women we found that over 50% of the women in our study were not meeting the recommendations for some very key food groups such as fruits, vegetables and dairy. We know that these food groups contain lots of vitamins, minerals, and key nutrients that are very important for mom and baby. Specifically, nutrients such as DHA, leutin and Vitamin E that are important for babies brain and eye development – many moms were not consuming the ideal levels.
Q: How can moms make sure they get enough DHA, Lutein or Vitamin E in their diets, are there certain foods that are best for consuming for that?
So, as a dietitian, yes we want to focus on food first for mom. We want to make sure she understands some of the key foods that provide these important nutrients such as leafy greens are a great source of luetin, salmon or other fatty fish are a great source for DHA, and nuts is a wonderful source for Vitamin E. From our study we know mom’s very busy, though, and many women were just probably not finding the time or for other reasons to be able to eat these foods on a regular basis. So there’s a Similac breastfeeding supplement that was specifically designed to have the ideal levels of these three key nutrients to provide mom with the peace of mind that she’s giving her baby her best.
Q: Can you tell me more about the Similac Breastfeeding Supplement: How many do they take a day, is it something they can buy over the counter?
The Similac Breastfeeding supplement is designed to be taken with your regular multivitamin or if mom’s continuing her prenatal vitamin – we really focus on those three key nutrients, so if mom’s taking any other vitamins it’s great that she takes those at the same time. It’s available at Babies ‘R’ Us, it’s a supplement that she takes once a day.
Q: Where can I get more information?
Similac.com has all the information that mom will need about this topic: more information about what are her dietary needs when she’s lactating, more information about the supplement as well as the study.
About Christina Sherry, Abbott Research Scientist
Christina Sherry is a research scientist at Abbott. She is an expert in prenatal and pregnancy nutrition with a focus on nutritional early programming of later health outcomes. Prior to joining Abbott, Christina was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. She earned a bachelor’s degree in dietetics from Bluffton University and her Ph.D. in nutritional science from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
I breastfed both of my kids for a year. I remember being very hungry all the time. I don’t think that I ate nearly enough. Great tips!
I didn’t breastfeed. It’s great that Similac recognized a need for breastfeeding mothers and offers a product for it.
eating for myself was a hard one when i was nursing at least when they were teeny tiny. it was just the last priority for me.
My sister is due in November, so I will share this with her. She is planning to breastfeed as long as she can.
That’s great info for breastfeeding moms. I would have taken a supplement to help me. New moms can be overwhelmed with things. I know that eating dropped down on my priority list anytime I had a newborn. I would rather have sleep! 🙂
Great post, sharing with a BFing Mom I know – she was looking for tips!
This is great information. I am sure many moms will find it very helpful!
Garbage in, Garbage out. That’s always the rule. So definitely how a mom eats affects the child.
This is so important for moms. It great that there is an option
I struggled to get the right nutrition when I was breastfeeding so Iknow this is a great idea.
I am a breastfeeding mom, these are some really important tips for mom and baby. I was not aware how important DHA was until recently and I have been breastfeeding for 9 years!
I guess coming from a family that always valued nutrition I never would have guessed that mom’s would not realize the importance of nutrition while breastfeeding. It is such an important benefit, but not when the mom and baby don’t get what they need! wow. Great article.
It’s so important to get the proper nutrients when breastfeeding. Thank you for sharing this information.
I’m so glad that there’s a breastfeeding supplement for mothers made by a major company. I’ll have to tell my cousin about this, she just became a new mom.
Thank you for this information. I am sure it is going to be so helpful for some new breastfeeding moms!
It’s amazing how careful you have to be when you breast feed. If you have super spicy food – just for example – you’ll have one miserable baby on your hands. O_O
When my sister was breast feeding, she really had to watch what she ate. She had to limit caffeine and spicy foods among other things, because it all passes through the milk to the baby.
This is a great post. When my friend was breastfeeding, she had to be super careful about what she ate. Everything passes through the breast milk to the baby.
Great to learn more. I breastfeed all three of my kids for as long as I could. But lacked a lot of knowledge and resources to make it as successful as I would have liked.
I breasted my three for the first tow months.matter that we used formula because I just couldn’t produce enough milk for my little piggies.
It’s so good to know things like this are available. It’s important to keep mom as healthy as possible!
I nursed my son and plan to nurse my next baby, so I appreciate the tips. I need to share this with my husband because when he reads things like this, he’ll rush to the store to buy me the recommended foods or whatever an article mentions. 🙂
What great tips… My little sister has just started nursing her first baby and has been struggling a bit. I will have to let her know about this helpful info… I bet she hasn’t thought about getting the right nutrients 🙂
I think it is so important to keep up on things like this. It helps your milk supply, and keeps mom and baby healthy. Thanks for sharing.
These are great tips. I made sure to eat a lot of fish and take vitamins when breastfeeding my kids.
This was actually interesting. I never breastfed, so I didn’t know a lot of this.