I can’t eat whatever I want!!!

A most common complaint I hear from new mothers is about the restrictions they have to face about eating habits once you have a baby. The whole world, including the mother and mother in law, advice them on what to eat, more often what not to eat and for the modern independent and often working woman, that is not easy to digest.

It is important to know why the restriction is advised. The baby when in the womb gets all its nutrition from the mother’s blood through the placenta. As an independent being, all the baby’s organs, its stomach, heart, intestines are developing slowly. As the baby adjusts with the external world, slowly develops its own immunity system, care has to be taken to ensure this development is calibrated and appropriate.

Mother’s milk is the sole source of nutrition for the infant for the first 6 months at least which is the most critical period post-delivery. All that the mother eats and drinks, now gets to the baby through this milk. So all the qualities of the food, heaviness, grossness, positive or negative directly are reflected in the quality of the milk.

Any food which impacts negatively the quality of milk for the baby is avoidable since it will directly impact the baby’s health. All the restrictions, therefore, have to be viewed through this lens. The restrictions are strict for the period of breastfeeding, which is a minimum of 6 months, and then can be eased slowly as the breastfeed intake goes down. Some of the stuff is an absolute no no – like alcohol.

We should avoid spinach as rainy season for it causes loose motion. Potato is avoidable since it leads to colic. This is based on our experience with the mothers we served. We also saw that Ajwain water intake by breastfeeding mom on a daily basis helps keep the colic away for both mother as well as the baby.
The mother needs to eat in a happy mood, aware that whatever she eats would pass on to her baby, so she needs to maintain a balance of what she likes to eat, what she enjoys eating, and what is good for
the baby.

It is useful to consult a dietitian/doctor for this. One should take the restrictions with the sense of responsibility and acceptance and not complaint about it.

Here are some useful links on what to eat ,specially related to Indian conditions.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/252816-infant-digestive-system-development/

http://ayurveda-foryou.com/women/breastfeeding.html