8. You can still eat for two
Don’t feel guilty for taking an extra helping at dinnertime; you need an additional 500 calories per day to help produce breast milk. For your baby’s sake, make those calories count.
“Eat whole grains, fruits and vegetables as well as foods containing calcium,” Beck says. Breast milk is rich in calcium, and if your diet is lacking in this important nutrient, your body will use your own calcium stores, which could leave you deficient.
“If you’re not a milk drinker, get calcium in other foods, such as cheese, yogurt, spinach and other dark leafy greens as well as fortified cereal and orange juice,” she says.
Here are a few nutrient rich, nursing-friendly recipes to make sure you and your baby are getting exactly what you need. Read more >>
>> Lisa Fields is a freelance writer in Hillsdale, N.J.
October/November 2012
