Keeping Your Breast Milk Healthy

As we all know, beast milk is the optimum food for the newborn baby. Being a mother, you have to maintain the hygiene and health of your breast milk so that you can provide the best possible nutrients to your baby for his growth. You can only keep your breast milk healthy by taking a good, nutrients rich diet. If your diet is poor, it will cause harm to both, you and your baby. Your recovery will be slow, and you would not be able to fulfill the requirements of your baby. It can have a bad effect on your as well as your baby's health. Continue the good-quality food which was recommended to you while pregnancy, in order to nurse your baby adequately. Remember, your baby will only eat whatever you eat. So, keep that in mind before putting anything in your mouth. It can happen that your baby gets gas or loose motions. If that is the case, recall what have you eaten in last twelve hours and try to avoid that. Then, slowly introduce that food, in small quantity, after few days and check the reaction of your baby. You must have the ample amount of liquid to produce the breast milk but take care that too much plain water can dilute the breast milk. So, you can have any nutritious soup or green tea.

Keeping the Diet Balanced

Having a well-balanced diet will surely produce healthy breast milk and for a good diet, apart from the carbohydrate, proteins and fats, you must include various vitamins and minerals. Proteins are the building blocks of our body. Protein is also a part of various enzymes, which helps in many processes like digestion. You will get good-quality protein in animal meat like poultry, fish, eggs, pulses and nuts, etc. Carbohydrates provide us the energy which we utilize for our daily activities. The sources of carbohydrates are all root vegetables, cereals, dairy products, sprouts and fruits, etc. Fats are responsible for maintain healthy body functions. It is required for the production of different hormones and synthesis of vitamin D. There are various other roles of fats in our body. The main sources of fats include all types of cooking oils, butter, cheese, etc.

The different vitamins we require are Vitamin A (liver, egg, dairy products, carrots, spinach, red peppers,), B1 (kidneys, nuts and pulses), B2 (yoghurt, fortified cereals), B6 (lean meat, whole wheat bread, nuts, banana, tofu, soya bean, fish), Niacin (poultry, pulses, nuts, fortified cereals, potatoes), Pantothenic Acid (Dried fruits, liver, vegetables, meat, nuts), Biotin (liver, peanut butter, yeast extract, egg yolk), Folic Acid (Brussels sprouts, green leafy vegetables, pulses, fortified breads), B12 (meat, fish, poultry, tofu, eggs), Vitamin C (citrus fruits like orange lemon, peppers, kiwis, strawberries), Vitamin D (egg, fish liver oil, salmon, tuna, sardines), Vitamin E (vegetable oil, wheat germ, nuts) and Vitamin K (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts). Every vitamin has its assigned role in the body.

Important minerals are calcium, chloride, magnesium, sodium, phosphorous, iron, zinc, selenium, etc. The sources are all fresh fruits and vegetables along with pulses, sesame seeds, dairy products, tinned sardines, nuts, table salt, sea food, red meat, whole grains, egg yolks, raisins, dried apricots, lentils, oysters, beans, sunflower seeds and butter.

Water also plays a very important role in our body functions. In order to keep ourselves healthy we must consume at least 10-12 glasses of water daily.