The issue of feeding a nursing mother is very complex.
The choice of products is influenced by a huge number of nuances, because it is necessary to provide a woman’s body weakened after childbirth with everything necessary and not harm the baby at the same time.
Considering conventional products in this vein, you may encounter the fact that they are banned, as vegetables, fruits and berries are excluded in the first place, despite their obvious benefits and richness in vitamins.
But is it possible for nursing to eat fish, it is necessary to consider in more detail, it all depends on the type of fish and the method of its preparation.
The benefits of different varieties of fish that can be lactating
Fish is necessarily included in the diet of a person seeking a healthy diet. Fish should be present on the menu at least 1-2 times a week. Those who follow this rule have a reduced risk of developing malignant tumors, diseases of the cardiovascular system, memory and concentration are improved.
First of all, determining the quality of the fish, you need to figure out where it comes from:
• river fish contains more protein and iron;
• Sea fish has more iodine, vitamin D, phosphorus.
The composition of sea fish contains more trace elements, but it is necessary to determine the degree of usefulness of a particular type of fish for each particular pregnant woman and this will depend on the geography of her residence. If there is no sea in the radius of the future mother’s residence for a thousand kilometers, but there are clean, non-navigable rivers, then, of course, fresh river fish will be more beneficial for her body than frozen sea fish several times.
Varieties of fish are also divided by fat content:
• skinny varieties (zander, pollock, pike, crucian carp);
• moderately fatty (chum, carp, pink salmon, herring);
• fatty (saury, salmon, mackerel);
• very fatty (lamprey, eel, whitefish).
The fatter the fish, the more Omega-3 amino acids in its composition. This substance is indispensable for the body, therefore it is fish that should not be selected only from lean varieties, fish oil is useful and cannot be excluded from the diet.
Can fish in the diet of a nursing mother change the quality and taste of milk?
The older generation believed that fish eaten on the eve of feeding the baby, can give an unpleasant smell to milk. Pediatricians and nutritionists do not see any connection between the use of fish and the smell and taste of breast milk. The smell may remain on the mother’s body if the cooker hood was not turned on during cooking, but not in milk.
The quality of milk in its composition also does not directly depend on the diet of a nursing mother. Its composition is formed not from the contents of the woman’s stomach, but from the substances in her blood. During the feeding period, as during pregnancy, the female body itself gives the baby everything that is necessary and useful, so only a catastrophic lack of vitamins can lead to poor-quality milk. First of all, a woman's nutrition should be rich and varied in order to maintain her own health.
The exceptions are artificial food additives and medicines. The human body is simply not intended for the processing of these substances, so they get into milk unchanged. A nursing woman should understand that all dyes, preservatives, stabilizers and flavor enhancers will certainly get into milk and affect the baby’s health. That is why you need to exclude them from your diet.
How to cook fish for nursing? Is it possible to eat raw fish and fish snacks?
In order to eat fully and exclude substances harmful to the child’s health, it is recommended that a woman not include fried, smoked and salty foods in the diet.
The best way to cook fish is baking. You can bake fish for nursing on a baking sheet, in foil, in a sleeve, separately and together with cereals or vegetables. Also, the beneficial properties of fish and good taste are preserved when cooking it for a couple or in a slow cooker.
A tasty and healthy dinner can be fatty fish with rice in the oven, fish meatballs with buckwheat, river fish stuffed with vegetables in foil, baked fish with potatoes, stewed with apples. With the help of a pressure cooker, you can cook a delicious delicate fish paste.
The main thing when cooking fish during breastfeeding is thorough heat treatment. When you buy fish, you can not completely exclude its infection with parasites. This applies to both fresh and frozen fish, since its quality is affected, in addition to the place of catch, by the conditions of storage and transportation. For this reason, it is better to bake fish in the oven well than to treat a baby for parasites.
Completely from the diet at the time of feeding, it is necessary to exclude sushi with raw fish, dried, dried, smoked, salted, canned fish.
As for the type of fish that can be breastfeeding, there are practically no restrictions. It is possible to observe some caution so as not to cause allergies in the newborn in the first month: do not eat or try a little of those varieties of fish that the woman did not eat during pregnancy. If there is no reaction in the child, then you can fully include it in your diet.
Can lactating replace fish with seafood?
Seafood in its composition contains no less protein, various elements and vitamins than fish. However, nutritionists and pediatricians recommend excluding them from the mother’s diet for the entire period of breastfeeding.
Shrimp, squid, mussels are a very strong allergen even for an adult, so even a small portion of sea treats for a mother can cause a negative reaction in a baby. In addition, storage and transportation conditions are often violated, and frozen foods can develop pathogenic bacteria and parasites, which can be saved from one way - do not eat seafood while the baby eats mother’s milk.
Another danger of seafood is their ability to accumulate harmful substances. These include hormones and antibiotics that people use when growing them in captivity or metals, radioactive substances from the waters of the water area.
