After you have your baby, if you’re like most women, you’ll have some extra weight added to your body. This is normal, but most women want to lose that weight as quickly as possible. If you’re feeding your baby formula, you can literally go on a diet if you want to, but what about breastfeeding moms? Can they diet to get their weight down after childbirth? This is never recommended, but this doesn’t mean that you won’t lose weight anyway!

Should You Be on a Special Diet When Breastfeeding?

There is no special diet for breastfeeding and, in fact, you should never go on a “diet” when you’re nursing. Why? Because breastfeeding is a lot of work and it takes an extra 500 calories or so per day just to make the milk that you’ll need to feed the baby. So, not only should you not reduce your caloric intake, but you actually need to add calories to your diet! This doesn’t mean, however, that those extra 500 calories can come from anywhere.

To be sure, the best breastfeeding diet for mom is one that is similar to the diet you followed while you were pregnant. In a way, when you’re breastfeeding, you’re still “eating for two” and everything that you eat, the baby will get as well. This is why, in many ways, you should eat like you did while you were pregnant. Some breastfeeding women even continue to take their prenatal vitamins until the baby is weaned.

That being said, in some ways, your diet has to be a little stricter than it was when you were pregnant. For instance, say you eat a lot of broccoli because it’s a healthy veggie and you love eating it anyway. Then, you start to notice your baby is a little fussier than usual; perhaps they are having gas and belly problems. Newborns often can’t tolerate breast milk when the mother is eating certain foods because just the same as us, they react differently to different foods.

The same goes for milk. Some babies have allergies to milk, and when they do and they’re being breastfed, the mother will have to stop drinking milk for a while. Their breastfeeding mom diet will have to exclude broccoli or milk, at least for the first few months or until you no longer notice the baby having these symptoms.

Your Diet Has to Be Extremely Healthy

As far as the best breastfeeding diet is concerned, it needs to include several foods in order for the breast milk to have the nutrients that it needs for the baby to grow and thrive. Most importantly, it must be a well-balanced diet that includes protein, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and some dairy products. The more vitamins and minerals are in your diet, the healthier you, the baby, and your breast milk will be.

If you already know that you’re deficient in some vitamins and minerals, the supplement you take is even more important, but you should still check this out with your doctor to make sure that you aren’t taking something you don’t need or taking too much of something. Just like during pregnancy, your doctor needs to be aware of everything that you do while you’re breastfeeding.

In the end, if you make sure that your diet is balanced and healthy, the milk you make will be enough for your baby to get what they need to grow properly. The breastfeeding moms’ diet doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. If you use common sense, eat very healthy meals, and pay attention to your baby so you can notice if any problems crop up, both you and the baby will be fine.

Tips to Keep in Mind

A lot of people don’t realize this, but the composition of breast milk can change with each feeding, which means that the calories the baby receives also change. At the beginning of the feeding, the milk is very watery, but the longer that the baby is fed, the thicker and more nutritious it becomes. This is why it is so important to feed the baby until that breast is empty before switching to the other breast.

This is yet another reason why you can easily lose weight while you’re breastfeeding. Each time you feed your baby, you lose a lot of liquids and a lot of calories. When you add to that the fact that a hormone that contracts the uterus is released every time you breastfeed, it’s easy to understand why it’s so easy for breastfeeding moms to lose weight and look thinner as they’re breastfeeding.

Still, keep in mind that all diets for breastfeeding moms include a healthy, well-balanced diet since all of the nutrients found in those foods eventually get to the baby. Losing weight while breastfeeding is relatively easy, and many new moms notice the pounds dropping off quickly even if they aren’t trying to lose weight or to diet. It happens because you need extra calories to produce the milk, and most mothers find that adding those extra calories isn’t exactly difficult.

Conclusion

Breastfeeding moms often find it easier to lose weight than moms who feed their babies formula. It takes roughly 500 extra calories a day just to make the milk, and if you’re breastfeeding frequently, it could take even more. The act of breastfeeding also contracts the uterus, so it’s easy to see how breastfeeding helps you lose weight and get thinner. This is yet another one of the many advantages of breastfeeding your baby.