What to Eat While Breastfeeding to Help Your Baby Gain Weight
Mothers sometimes wonder if the kind of foods they feed on will positively or negatively affect their breast milk. You may not be sure to avoid some specific type of goods to prevent your baby from indigestion or allergies.
Continue reading as this article answers what to eat while breastfeeding to help your baby gain weight, and other related questions.
Breastfeeding your baby
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You might feel you need to take some particular type and classes of food which can supply enough quality and quantity of milk for your baby’s consumption. Your body knows the right amount and nutrients your baby needs at every developmental stage. One of your priorities as a mother is to ensure your child gains appropriate weight in the proper manner and at the right time without any form of complications or threat to their existence.
What to Eat While Breastfeeding to Help Your Baby Gain Weight
Do well to include foods with protein at least two to three times a day. There are a lot of protein meals that cant be harmful to your baby and, at the same time, will aid the growth, development, and increase in weight of your baby. Examples of such foods are fish, eggs, beans, milk, and seeds.
- Don’t go a day without taking vegetables such as dark green and yellow vegetables.
- Take fruits at least two times a day. Also, do well to include beverages, cereals, pasta, and bread slices in your daily feeding.
- Never stay dehydrated.
- Always take water to satisfy your thirst. Also, please do not force yourself to take any liquid substance as it doesn’t mean increasing your milk supply.
- If you are a vegetarian, do well to take supplements to source for nutrients missed.
What Not To Eat While Breastfeeding to Help Your Baby Gain Weight
As your body regulates the proper nutrients you need for breastfeeding, research has shown that what a nursing mother feeds on affects her breast milk.
Do well to avoid caffeine, alcohol, and herbal supplements as they may affect your child’s health. Your baby may be hyper or hypo sensitive to what you take.
Also Read: best electric pump for breastfeeding
How Much To Eat While Breastfeeding to Help Your Baby Gain Weight
Breastfeeding takes more calories from the body. Your body will use the baby weight left from your pregnancy for calories needed for your breast milk. If you have lost all your baby weight during pregnancy, you may need an intake of extra calories for your breast milk.
Helping Your Baby Gain Weight
It is usual for babies to lose weight a few days after birth. A baby fed with formula loses three to four percent of weight a few days after delivery. A baby fed with breast milk only loses between six to seven percent. After two weeks, the baby begins to regain lost weight. After one year, the baby doubles its triples in size.
If you feel your baby isn’t growing in weight as they attain developmental milestones. It would be best if you seek the help of a pediatrician, but here are some DIY tips:
For babies 2 months and below, breastfeed them every two to three hours, making it eight to twelve times a day.
For babies 3 to 7 months, the gain in weight is likely to take a sharp decline. You may notice an increase of nearly 100 grams in their weight gain, but by the time she clocks 5 months, there may be a double increase in the weight of your baby.
It is also likely your baby show interest in solid food but does not attempt giving her no matter what you see and hear, and you should complete the 6-month phase before you start to introduce it to her.
For a baby’s first 7 to 12 months, the weight growth may increase to about 140grams per week, and if you give it few months, the weight of your baby is likely to soar and spring up in a huge tripled manner. This is the period your baby starts adapting to solid foods but make sure you give her finger foods so she can be able to feed herself. Also, watch her at all times to avoid food accidents such as choking.
Most importantly, it does not matter if you are breastfeeding your baby or giving her a formula-influenced meal. You should always ensure she drinks a massive percentage of calories through the end of the first year.
Allergies in your baby
A baby still breastfed is likely to develop an allergy to some foods the mother is eating. Part of the symptoms of the allergies is green mucus-like and blood-specked stools.
Steps to take to increase the weight of your baby?
It is normal to observe some babies and see them having difficulties or a hard time eating and find it hard to maintain the increase in the growth of their weight. Make your physician or any health personnel you trust when you start noticing your baby shows symptoms of difficulty in swallowing, constantly vomiting in the process of eating, displaying signs of allergy while feeding, showing symptoms of reflux, or any other sign of body disorder.
The implications of those particular issues have a very high tendency of preventing your baby from inhibiting the needed calories from boosting her weight, and this could slow down the rate of weight growth. It is now up to you to concoct the correct process in the proper manner of reducing the threats attached.
If the health personnel in charge insists that there is nothing wrong with the current weight of your baby and has details on the flow chart of your baby’s growth, be rest assured that there is nothing wrong.
There is no cause for alarm, so no need to unnecessarily change your dietary plan. Suppose you try to increase the weight gain of your baby when it is unnecessary. In that case, the risks attached may probably, later on, lead to inappropriate growth of weight or unhealthy feeding behaviors by your baby in the future.
Steps to take While Helping Your Baby Gain Weight
- Maintain a consistent practice: It is not an easy task to nurse a baby. so it is an art that is compulsory to learn as a nursing mother. Try seeing and consulting a counselor who has expertise in lactation and is capable of checking if your baby is latching correctly, if your baby has a defect that is making it difficult to get fed well at the breast or if your baby needs to be reinvigorated
- Boost your milk supply
If you are bothered that your milk supply isn’t sufficient to meet your baby’s demands, relax. Most moms have this fear. To increase your milk supply, keep your baby close by, nurse, every hour or two, and try to rest up. The more you feed, the more there is to be fed.
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