Healthy eating after delivery
After pregnancy, you need to continue to eat well and healthy food. It is necessary to restore the balance of nutrients and improve the overall health, which is especially important when breastfeeding.
Pregnancy and childbirth have probably created a nutritional deficiency in your body. Perhaps you have had long fights or you have lost a lot of blood. Balanced nutrition is vital to maintaining your health and saturating the energy needed to care for your child.
However, the child's needs can leave little time for cooking or healthy food that you used while pregnant. In this case, always have healthy snacks at hand, which you can "intercept", and freeze the excess to quickly use it. It is not bad to think about taking general-purpose medicines with a well-balanced complex of vitamins and minerals.
NUTRITION FOR BREAST-FEEDING MOTHERS
If you are breastfeeding, you probably understand how responsible this process is. Your food through milk should satisfy all the energy needs of a growing child. In addition, food must contain the necessary amount of vitamins and minerals for the health of the child and mother.
Your energy needs
During pregnancy, most women accumulate from 2 to 4 kilograms of fat, used as an additional source of energy when breastfeeding. Despite this, you need energy for lactation. The best criterion in the first few weeks after giving birth is your appetite, so you will consume about 500 calories more than the recommended 1950-2100 for non-pregnant women.
Essential Vitamins for Breastfeeding
The composition of vitamins in breast milk depends largely on what the woman consumes. Pay special attention to the following vitamins.
♦ Vitamin A As with most nutrients, the need for it increases during lactation to cover its flow through milk to the baby. Many people already consume enough vitamin A, but try to increase your daily intake. Good sources of vitamin A are fish oil, dairy products, egg yolk, yellow and red fruits and vegetables.
♦ Vitamins of group B These are water-soluble vitamins, which means that they can not be stored in the body, so they are needed daily. Good sources of B vitamins are whole wheat bread and cereals, lean meat, vitaminized breakfasts, fish and eggs.
♦ Vitamin C Like Vitamin B, it is water-soluble, therefore, set the task of consuming a vitamin C rich in Carbohydrates do not create fat deposits Such foods as potatoes and pasta contain not a lot of calories, extra fats produce a creamy and vegetablebutter and cream, which significantly increase the calorie content. If you want to lose weight, while maintaining a sufficient level of energy, the best source of energy will be unrefined carbohydrates. So, 170 grams of potatoes, depending on the way of cooking, will give a different amount of energy: boiled potatoes will give 130 calories, fried - 268, and chips - 430. Choose a healthier and less caloric food preparation, and you will lose weight faster.
shchu, which includes citrus fruits and juices, kiwi, berries, green vegetables, potatoes, red and black peppers.♦ Vitamin D Since the main source of vitamin D is the effect of sunlight on the skin, it is not surprising that breast-fed infants have seasonal fluctuations in vitamin D levels in the blood. In autumn children, its concentration can fall to a very low level, since the winter milk contains little of this vitamin. For this reason, breast-feeding mothers are recommended to take 10 μg of vitamin D.
daily. The main minerals when breastfeeding
If the intake of certain minerals( especially iron and calcium) is low, natural storage of your body will be used to ensure their normal contentsin breast milk. Of course, they will be withdrawn from the "warehouses" already exhausted by pregnancy, so it is necessary to use a quantity of minerals that will cover the needs of both you and the child.
To meet needs, a well-balanced diet is needed. Iron can be obtained from low-fat red meat, fish, whole grains, spinach, fortified cereal breakfasts and legumes. To calcium-rich foods are dairy products, tofu and green leafy vegetables. However, if you are allergic to lactose, you can take calcium-containing drugs that will prevent it from washing away from the bones.
Drink plenty of fluids
Make sure you consume a lot of fluids - six to eight 250-gram glasses a day. Drinking is especially important when breastfeeding, as the mother gives the child a daily 0.5-0.6 liters of fluid per day. When feeding, always keep a glass with water near you and drink it often, in small sips. However, do not force yourself to drink too much water, since consuming more than 12 glasses per day will slow the production of milk.
Any alcohol that you use will fall into the milk. It will affect the smell of milk and may not like the baby. Excessive use of alcohol can lead to drowsiness, irritability and slowing the growth of the child. For these reasons, it is better to avoid alcohol while breastfeeding. But if you can not completely abandon it, limit yourself to a daily glass of wine after feeding.
After a cup of coffee, tea or cola, the level of caffeine in milk reaches a maximum after an hour. It is more difficult for a child's organism to get rid of caffeine than an adult, so it can accumulate. Children whose mothers consume even an average amount of caffeine are disturbed by sleep, increased irritability, so try to drink no more than one cup of coffee or tea a day and, as a rule, two hours before feeding.
REDUCING CONSUMPTION OF CALORIES
You, no doubt, are alarmed to regain your old figure and get rid of extra pounds, but do not get too carried away. Restricted diet or diet that gives a quick effect, not only
Ready-to-eat dried fruits, such as dates, apricots and currants, are a good source of iron and energy.
Bananas are rich in potassium, responsible for the water balance in the body.
Cheese and milk( at the request of reduced fat) will help you maintain the necessary level of calcium.
Vitaminized cereal breakfasts make up for the lack of B vitamins, and sometimes iron.
Seeds contain zinc, which is necessary for wound healing.
Pieces of pepper, inflorescences of broccoli and cherry tomatoes will increase the level of vitamin C and help the body fight infections.
are not healthy, especially if you are breastfeeding, but also unproductive. If you do not eat enough calories, then put yourself at risk of remaining without vitamins and minerals needed by the body.
If you are breastfeeding, limiting your caloric intake may call into question your ability to produce milk. Once the milk has started to be properly developed, begin to lose weight, as weight loss will no longer affect its production. Just do it slowly and thoughtfully. Do not reduce the daily intake of food below 1800 calories and do it not earlier than 6-8 weeks after the birth of the child.
If you do not breastfeed, you still need to maintain a certain energy level, but you can reduce the diet to 1950-2100 calories( that is, what was before pregnancy).However, do this gradually, within a few weeks, and do not be too strict at once.
Even if you are not breastfeeding, you should think about the balance of vitamins and minerals entering into the body in order to keep fit and not to harm your health, since you will need strength to take care of your child. Pregnancy will deplete the stores of nutrients in the body, so you need a balanced diet with lots of fresh foods to restore the body. Watch for the consumption of fats, vegetable oils and sugar, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Unrefined carbohydrates( for example, brown rice and whole-grain bread, cereals and pasta) will be energized and will provide healthy nutrients, they will help you take care of the baby.