The Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA), recommends breastfeeding mums need to eat an extra 2000kj a day on top of the recommended 8-10,000kj a day for a standard diet. Breastfeeding mums produce approximately 800ml of milk a day and the demands of producing that milk means that they need to keep an eye on their diet and make sure they are eating enough healthy foods to look after themselves as well as their baby.

The key to good nutrition for anyone is to eat foods from the five food groups every day. It is important for mum to keep up a good diet from these food groups:

• Fruit
• Vegetables
• Dairy (milk, cheese, yoghurt)
• Protein (meat, chicken, fish, nuts, eggs)
• Grains and cereals (bread, rice, pasta)

As well as eating a nutricious diet, a breastfeeding mother must make sure that her fluid intake is increased. As mentioned above, around 800ml of milk is made per day and baby drains that fluid from the mother’s body. She must replenish her breastmilk so therefore needs to increase her fluid intake to keep herself hydrated and her body producing milk for her baby. Whilst baby is breastfeeding mum is likely to become thirsty so it’s a good idea to have a glass of water with you whenever you are feeding your baby.

Women usually need about 46gm of protein a day, but this amount increases to about 67g for women who are breastfeeding because a lot of protein goes into the breast milk. Examples of foods high in protein are roasted chicken breast, ham, almonds, cheddar cheese and boiled eggs. These are great additions to your diet when breastfeeding.

Breastmilk also drains zinc and iodine from the mother’s supply, so it is important for any breastfeeding mother to increase her intake of both of these vital nutrients. High protein foods are also high in zinc and milk is a good source as well. These days you can buy iodised salt and adding this to your regular meals should be sufficient for breastfeeding mums.

If you feel like you’re not getting enough vitamins and minerals you can always take a specialised multivitamin designed for breastfeeding. Most of the time, these will be the ones you have already been taking during pregnancy, some examples are Elevit and Blackmores Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Gold.

Most breastfeeding mums have the freedom to eat whatever foods they like without any problems. There are however a few guidelines that you might like to know about.

Caffeine becomes very diluted in the blood & is therefore not a problem by the time it gets into breastmilk. The recommendation is no more than four cups per day (this includes, tea, coffee and cola) as the cause for concern with caffeine is the fact that it is a diuretic and causes mum to lose fluid so you will need to drink a lot more non-caffeinated drinks if you choose to drink anything with caffeine during the day. Energy drinks are not recommended at all.

The most recent research says that one standard alcoholic drink is unlikely to harm your baby through breastmilk, any more than that passes through breastmilk in high quantities and can be dangerous to your baby. If you do choose to have a drink, it’s best to wait until baby is in bed for the night and is likely to have a longer stretch between feeds so the alcohol has time to diminish in your milk supply. It’s not all bad news though, if you want to go out for a night on the town and have a few drinks. You can till have a few drinks, all you need to do is “pump & dump”, i.e. express off the breastmilk and throw it away. All you need to remember is that the alcohol in your breastmilk will be similar to what’s in your blood, so if you are ready at 0.05 on a breath test, you will have a similar amount in your breastmilk.

Also, if you smoke, breastfeeding is a good reason to try to quit. Smoking can cause you to produce less milk and the chemicals in cigarettes is released through breastmilk.

Some mums find that there are certain foods that upset their baby’s stomachs. This doesn’t happen with all babies and it’s possible that you can eat all of your regular foods without any problems. However if you do notice that your baby is fussy or has an upset tummy you might need to think back to what you have been eating. Some of the following are known to cause problems for some babies:

• spicy foods
• chocolate
• broccoli
• cabbage
• brussels sprouts
• tomato
• oranges
• onions
• beans

One good thing to remember also is that the flavour of your breastmilk will change slightly with what you eat. It’s believed that babies who are breastfed will enjoy a more varied diet once they are weaned as they are used to a variety of flavours, where formula tastes the same every single time.

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Now winter is in full swing treat your bump and yourself to some in-season vegetables that are so much more fresh and nutritious than those that have been sitting in storage for months.

Here are two chicken recipe that make the best use of vegetables in season now.

Brown Rice Salad with in-season spring onions, capsicum, lemons, garlic and ginger

1 ½ cups brown rice, cooked
3 spring onions, finely chopped
1 red capsicum, seeded and chopped
½ cup raisins or sultanas
60g cashews, roasted and chopped
2 tablesspoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 chicken breast, cooked then cooled then sliced.
Soy Sauce Dressing (see below)

Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss thoroughly before serving.

Soy Sauce Dressing

¼ cup of olive oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
Pepper to taste

Place in a jar and shake well.

Curry Chicken Soup with in-season brown onion, carrot and turnip

4 tablespoons butter or oil
2 large chicken Maryland
1 brown onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 turnip, chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
4 cloves
6 black peppercorns, lightly crushed
¼ cup lentils
3 ¾ chicken stock
¼ cup raisins or sultanas

1. Melt the butter or heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the chicken and brown. Transfer chicken to a plate and set aside.

2. Add the onion, carrot, and turnip to the saucepan and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly coloured.

3. Stir in the curry powder, cloves, and crushed peper and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the lentils.

4. Pour the stock into the pan and bring to the boil. Add the raisins or sultanas, chicken and any juices from the plate. Cover and simmer for about 1 ¼ hours.

5. Remove the chicken from the saucepan and discard the skin and bones. Chop the meat, return to the soup, and reheat. Check the seasoning before serving the soup piping hot.

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Many people think that during pregnancy everything has to change. Fortunately, this is not the case. There are a lot of things that you did prior to falling pregnant that you won’t have to change at all during pregnancy.

Some of the following are concerns for a lot of mothers when they first fall pregnant and wonder if they can continuing with their daily activities during pregnancy.

Exercise

It’s great for mum to continuing exercising during pregnancy as it helps to keep her fit and healthy and ready for the marathon that is labour and birth. Walking, jogging and cardio exercise are all fine to do during pregnancy, so long as you were already doing it prior to the pregnancy. If you decide to start exercising once pregnant, that’s fine, but check with your doctor first about where you should start.

Alternatively you might like to do some specific pregnancy exercise classes. The two main options are water aerobics and prenatal yoga. Both are great exercise programs to get into during pregnancy as they are low impact but great for keeping you fit. Just make sure that if you decide to join a yoga class, you check that it is pregnancy friendly and if it’s not, let the instructor know that you are pregnant as some of the exercises might need to me modified to suit you.

Going out with friends

Some people worry about going out with their friends during pregnancy, particularly as they get closer to their due date, but as long as you are comfortable it’s perfectly fine to go out with friends. Going to concerts is still great fun when you’re pregnant as long as you’re not in the mosh pit getting bumped about. Going shopping can be more fun with friends during pregnancy as there’s an extra little person for you to spoil!

One recommendation is that as you near your due date you don’t stray too far from the hospital just in case you go into labour. In saying that, there’s no reason why you can’t go for an hour’s long drive with your partner or a friend, as long as there is someone with you to drive you back home if contractions start.

Going to work

Unfortunately during pregnancy it’s still perfectly fine for you to go to work, as long as you’re not a deep sea diver or sky diving instructor! More often than not, the concern for most women working during pregnancy is tiredness. If you’re on your feet at work all day you will want to make sure you rest up when you get home of an evening. Whilst you might not want to and would prefer to put your feet up at home, working during pregnancy is quite alright.

Eating the foods you enjoy

During pregnancy you will hear lots of people telling you what you can and can’t eat. There are some foods that should be avoided during pregnancy (including but not limited to deli meats, soft cheeses and soft serve ice cream), most of your day to day foods are perfectly fine for you to eat. Left overs for lunch are even perfectly acceptable as long as they are stored in the fridge right away and heated until they are piping hot.

Having sex

There are very few reasons why sex should be avoided during pregnancy and unless your doctor specifically tells you otherwise, you can still enjoy sex with your partner for the whole time you are pregnant. Towards the end of the pregnancy when you are feeling very big and uncomfortable you may need to alter your positions, but there is no reason that you need to stop enjoying a full and happy sex life during pregnancy.

Looking gorgeous

Maternity fashions have come a long way since our mothers were pregnant with us. Gone are the days of huge flowery dresses that look like sacks. Most large ships like Target and Big W etc carry a nice range of maternity clothes at decent prices or you can look into more specialized maternity fashion boutiques in real life or online. Whichever way you go, during pregnancy you can still look and feel great.

You can also continue to have your manicures and acrylic nails done and your hair and eyebrows dyed. Both are perfectly safe during pregnancy, though you need to be aware that both your hair and nails are likely to grow much faster when you are pregnant so you might need to make your appointments closer together. One consideration you might need to think about though is the smell of the salon, sometimes the chemical smells will affect your morning sickness so make sure you are ok for a little while before sitting down to a two hour hair appointment.

There are however still a few things that are not recommended during pregnancy, the main two being smoking and drinking alcohol.

Smoking

We all know that smoking at any time is dangerous to your health, but smoking during pregnancy affects not only your health, but your baby’s health as well. Smoking during pregnancy reduces the amount of oxygen that can get to your baby and can cause miscarriage and brain damage. Your baby may be premature and have a small birth weight as well as being at risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

It is advisable to quit smoking prior to falling pregnant, but if you find yourself unexpectedly pregnant before you have quit, you can still do so during pregnancy. Recent research has found that using a nicotine patch during pregnancy is safer as only one of the chemicals (ie nicotine) are getting into your blood stream, as compared with a multitude of others whilst actually smoking a cigarette. Please see your doctor if you are pregnant and want to quit smoking for some advice on how to proceed.

Drinking

Depending on which article you read, research is pretty divided about what is a safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy. We all know that in excess alcohol is very dangerous to the baby, but most women will wonder at some point during their pregnancy if they are able to safely have a glass or wine, especially if they are pregnant over the festive period.

You might like to abstain completely or you might choose to have a glass of wine here or there, just remember that drinking excessive amounts of alcohol during pregnancy is dangerous to your growing baby.

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When you’re trying to conceive a child there may be the wish in the back of your mind for a certain gender. Of course everyone wants to have a healthy and happy baby, but sometimes we desire a specific gender and there are actually ways to go about swaying your chances of conceiving either a boy or girl.

The main option for gender swaying is through the Shettles method and while it’s users sometimes claim up to a 90% success rate it’s not a guarantee that you will get the gender that you so desperately want. Like all things in life, at the end of the day the gender of your baby really is up to chance, but there’s no harm in trying right?

The Shettles method is based on timing intercourse and using certain sexual positions for conceiving either gender. There are other methods that you can use, including diet changes, that will aid in conceiving either a boy or girl. Below I will describe some techniques for you to try and sway your chances toward conceiving either gender.

To Conceive a Boy.

According to Shettles, you need to have sex as close to ovulation as possible to conceive a boy. The sperm that carry the Y-Chromosome (and make boy babies) are much faster than the X-Chromosome sperm so the closer to ovulation that they are released the better. They are also more vulnerable & weak, which means that even though they are fast, if the “boy sperm” arrive at the correct place too soon, they are likely to die off before the egg is ready.

Shettles theory also says that deeper penetration is useful for conceiving a boy as this allows the faster Y-Chromosome sperm to arrive at the egg first and also gives the weaker sperm a shorter overall journey. In addition, the area closest to the cervix (the opening of the uterus) is less acidic, which is the sort of environment that “boy sperm” prefer.

The mother’s diet can also impact on the environment within the vagina, which will favour either gender. A diet high in potassium and sodium creates an alkaline environment which is best for boy conception. Dried apricots, any types of beans & legumes as well as potatoes are great high potassium foods. Whereas brown bread, omlettes, canned fish and camembert cheese are high in sodium.

As well as trying the Shettles Method and diet changes, there are two things you can do at the time of intercourse to help conceive a boy. Female orgasm makes the vagina more alkaline, so give this a go if you want to conceive a boy. Dad can also help by having a caffeinated drink prior to intercourse which makes the Y-Chromosome sperm more active.

To Conceive a Girl.

According to Shettles, to conceive a girl you need to have sex two and a half to three days prior to ovulation. The sperm that carry the X-Chromosome (and make girl babies) are slower than the Y-Chromosome sperm but are more resilient. “Girl sperm” last a lot longer so while they take a while to arrive in the right place, generally later than the “boy sperm” they are strong enough to last a few days inside the woman’s body to wait for the release of the egg.

Shettles says that shallow penetration favours conceiving girls as the area closest to the entrance of the vagina is more acidic. The acidic environment is more likely to inhibit the Y-Chromosome sperm & is therefore more likely to aid in the X-Chromosome sperm getting to where it needs to go with less Y-Chromosome sperm getting in the way so to speak.

Diet changes also make a difference in swaying towards a girl conception. Diets high in calcium and magnesium make the vagina more acidic, which is more conducive to a girl conception. Mum should eat foods like yoghurt, cheese, rhubarb and drink plenty of milk to increase her calcium intake, while artichokes, pine nuts, almonds and spinach are great sources of magnesium.

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Like many issues to do with pregnancy, recommendations have changed on how much salt should be in your diet. Advice on this issue has taken a complete turn around from that given in the past.

Do not limit your sodium intake

You may have family and friends telling you that you need to limit your sodium intake during pregnancy as it was once thought to contribute to water retention and bloating. Now, experts believe the opposite - you should increase your sodium intake for a number of reasons, one being that it could actually be beneficial in helping maintain adequate fluid levels.

In a nutshell, progesterone level in your pregnant body causes an increased sodium content in your urine. You essentially wee out more salt when pregnancy. This needs to be replaced.

Sodium should not be restricted during pregnancy your doctor put you on a low sodium diet for specific medical reasons.

Iodine is important too

Pregnant women need higher levels of iodine, as a lack of this nutrient can retard normal development in a baby. Your body need it too to make essential thyroid hormones. If these are missing you can end up with an enlarged thyroid gland (goiter).

Not all salts are the same

Saying you need more sodium and iodine does not mean you can suddenly load up on junk and processed foods.

Standard table salt is chemically cleansed, highly refined, and contained in virtually every processed food you buy. Essential minerals are stripped during the processing to the point that iodide has to be added back in to prevent goiter as mentioned above.

Alternatively, unrefined sea salt is a naturally occurring complex of sodium chloride. Without all the processing, using sea salt means your body benefits from the inclusion of major minerals such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, and around 80 essential trace minerals.

So replace your table salt with sea salt but make sure it is genuine. Real sea salt is rarely white in colour, so choose products with differing colours as it is an indication of the salt’s mineral content.

In moderation

So, feel safe in the knowledge that you need some good salt in your diet. However, like many things in pregnancy, this should be done in moderation. The amount recommended to consume each day is quite small and therefore measured in micrograms. It is recommended that you consume 220µg of salt during pregnancy and 270µg while breastfeeding per day.

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Fish is often cited as a super food and is important for your pregancy. Oily fish are rich in Omega-3, a fatty acid that is essential for our health and important for brain growth, the nervous system and eye development for your baby.  It cannot be made by your body itself so needs to be sourced by food. It is recommended that during pregnancy and when breast feeding women take in about 500 milligrams of marine sourced Omega-3 daily.

However, eating some oily fish pose serious risks to your pregnancy. Both the Heart Foundation and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) express concern for pregnant women regarding the heavy metals that make their way into fish, in particular, mercury. See FSANZ's advice here.

Certain varieties of fish need to be taken in moderation to ensure high levels of mercury do not enter your body and thus your baby. It is advised to avoid these large fish as they are identified as potential mercury donors:

• Marlin
• Broadbill
• Flake (shark)
• Swordfish

In addition, catfish and sea perch need to be consumed in moderation.

Even canned fish has its problems, as Bisephenol (BPA) used to line the tin of canned fish has been linked to a variety of health problems and should be avoided as much as possible.

So, this is all getting confusing. On one hand we are advised to intake marine Omega-3, and on the other, warned of associated health issues. Here is ways to safely eat fish to get your important supply of Omega-3:

1. Consume any fish not listed above two to three times a week. Here is five oily fish that are small and considered a low mercury risk:

• Atlantic and Australian salmon
• Fresh rainbow trout
• blue-eye trevalla
• blue mackerel
• sardines

2. Limit fish to a serving size of around 150 grams.

3. An alternative would be one serving only of sea perch per week, and no other fish for that week, or one serve per fortnight of flake, billfish, marlin and broadbill per fortnight and no other fish for that fortnight.

This will provide adequate Omega-3 and help protect you and your baby from high mercury levels.

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Eating organic during your pregnancy is a good goal to have because:

• You’ll avoid dangerous pesticides which have been linked to causing cancer, neurological disorders, and damage to the immune and reproductive systems.
• Your food will be more nourishing for you and your baby as it will be at its freshest.
• You will automatically be eating according to the seasons, providing important variation in your diet.
• Best of all, it will taste a lot better than the stuff lying around for month before it gets to your plate.

But organic food can be pretty expensive too. Here are some tips to finding organic produce and fitting it into your household budget.

1. Benefit from other consumer's choices

When you stop to look you’ll be surprised how many products on your supermarket’s shelves are now organic since so many consumers now prefer them.

On your next shop switch to these products and see how much your weekly bill increases; it may not be that much:

• Switch to organic milk, yoghurt, and butter.
• Buy organic flour, pasta and olive oil.

2. Find an organic vegetable and fruit stall at your local market

Head down to your local food and produce market on Sunday towards the end of the day to see what organic vegetables and fruit are on offer. Many traders reduce the price of produce as the market draws to a close.

Buy one week’s worth of produce that you would normally buy elsewhere and see how much it differs in price.

3. Investigate having your vegetables and fruit delivered to your door

Search the internet for providers of organic vegetable and fruit boxes that you can have delivered to your door. They may not be as expensive as you think as this sort of business has grown significantly in recent years.

Tell one of the companies you would like to trial their service for one week. Compare the price and quality to what you found at the market, as well as what you would normally spend on non-organic produce. You might be surprised to find it may not be that much more over a week.

Another benefit to eating organic is that you won’t waste much food. Once you have put more effort into sourcing your fruit and vegetables you will want to make sure you use it all up. It tastes too good to waste too! In the end you’ll find you are buying, and therefore throwing out, less food.

4. Work with what you can afford

If you find the above actions don’t work for you and your budget you can wash all your non-organic fruit and vegetables thoroughly and try to eat a variety of foods to avoid ingesting the same pesticides repeatedly.

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You have probably been made to feel guilty eating chocolate with the old adage that it is full of caffeine and thus bad for your baby. But, is it?

The good news is that there is no evidence that moderate amounts of caffeine, which certainly is in chocolate, are a problem for your pregnancy.

In fact, there have been reports over the years of chocolate being good for you and your baby:

• Research has found that regularly eating chocolate may reduce the risk of pre-eclampsia.
• Scientists at the University of Helsinki found, through a study with 300 pregnant women, that daily chocolate consumption had a positive impact on the baby’s behaviour: more smiling and laughing and less fear in new situations.

So Easter doesn’t have to be glum after all. However, as always, there is a catch – your consumption has to be “in moderation”.

You should know that eating a litter of chocolate bilby’s isn’t good for you. Advice is to have a “small” amount of chocolate with some confusing contradictions on how much that exactly is. Ask your doctor for advice to ease your conscience.

Also, the darker the chocolate the better it is for you and your baby. It has great health benefits by being rich in iron and flavonoids. By only eating high quality, dark chocolate you will avoid unhealthy stuff that is dense in fat, calories, sugar, and additives.

So, you don’t have to ignore those cravings which may be you’re your body telling you what it needs. Listen in and enjoy your Easter!

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Folic acid which is a form of the B vitamin folate has just been mandated as an additive to bread-flour in a quest to reduce the number of neural tube defects in babies such as spina bifida. Folate ideal for young women and reduces the risk of abnormalities in births.

Accredited Nutritionist, Glenn Cardwell says, “While this move will help to bring folate intake among women up to the recommended level of 400 micrograms (mcg) a day, everyone should remember that one of the most natural and simplest ways to increase folate intake is to eat a banana.

Bananas are a great source of folate providing up to 10 percent of the recommended daily intake making them ideal for young women and also as an adjunct to avoiding heart disease and dementia.

According to Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, “Neural tube defects are the most serious birth defects. With spina bifida, the spinal column does not close properly and the baby is born with exposed nerves and damages vertebrae. Children with spina bifida can face paralysis, problems with mobility, muscle control, coordination and learning.”

Cardwell says, “The National Health and Medical Research Council recommends that pregnant women take a folic acid supplement at least a month before falling pregnant and for three months after conception, and because almost 50% of pregnancies are unplanned in Australia, snacking on a banana every day is a great start to boosting that folate intake just in case.

“A medium banana provides about 20 mcg of folate In comparison, bread will now have about 50 mcg/slice. Put another way, a banana sandwich could provide 120mcg folate, about 30% of daily folate needs.

“Of course, if you don't eat a lot of bread or want to limit your bread intake, then grab a banana.

“Bananas are also an ideal food to control over-eating because bananas quickly fill your appetite needs,” Cardwell says.

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Breast-feeding mums’ should take a close look at their diet as it could be associated with colic in their babies. Ten to 20 per cent of newborns suffer from colic, thought to be caused by stomach pain, however new studies show that a low-allergen diet can reduce colic.

Researchers from Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital have found that colic is caused by allergies to particular foods passed on through breast milk. A study was carried out on a group of breast-feeding mother’s who were put on low-allergen diets by eliminating foods such as eggs, milk, nuts, fish and wheat. It revealed that their babies, all under six weeks old, cried for an average of two hours less each day, with three-quarters of them showing an improvement.

A second group of mother’s were put on a diet containing high-allergy foods. Only one-third of babies showed an improvement with an average reduction in crying of only 30 minutes (this improvement indicates the babies are simply growing out of their colic). Researchers suggest that the allergies passed on through breast milk develop into colic in some babies and eczema in others.

Source: Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital

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