Want to pack in the nutrition without packing on the pounds? Choose foods that efficiently fill more than one requirement in a serving. Many dairy products provide protein and calcium servings, some over-achieving fruits and vegetables offer up both yellow or green leafy and
vitamin C. A real nutritional super-star? Broccoli, which packs a onetwo-three punch (green leafy, vitamin C, and, if eaten in somewhat greater quantity, a calcium serving).
Protein—three servings daily if you’re breastfeeding, two if you’re not. Many of these also serve up a calcium requirement. One serving equals any of the following: 2ẵ to 3 glasses skim or lowfat milk; 1ắ cups lowfat yogurt; ắ cup lowfat cottage cheese; 2 large eggs plus 2 whites; 5 egg whites; 3 to 3ẵ ounces fish, meat, or poultry; 5 to 6 ounces tofu. Other soy products (including many vegetarian frozen dinners) may also contain plenty of protein; check labels. Breastfeeding mothers of twins or triplets need an extra serving for each additional baby. Vegans, those vegetarians who eat no animal protein, should add an extra protein serving daily since the quality of vegetable protein is not as high as that of animal protein.
Vitamin C foods—two servings daily if you’re breastfeeding, at least one if you’re not. Keep in mind that many vitamin C foods also fill the requirement for green leafy and yellow vegetables and yellow fruits. One serving equals any of the following: ẵ cup strawberries; ẳ small cantaloupe; ẵ grapefruit; 1 small orange; to ẵ cup citrus juice; ẵ large mango, papaya, or guava; cup cooked broccoli or ắ cup cooked cauliflower; 1ẵ cups shredded raw cabbage; ắ cup cooked kale, collard greens, or kohlrabi; 1 medium green bell pepper or ẵ medium red bell pepper; 2 small tomatoes or 1 cup tomato juice.
Green leafy and yellow vegetables and yellow fruits—at least three servings daily if you’re breastfeeding, two or more if you’re not. Keep in mind that many of these also fill the requirement for vitamin C. One serving equals any of the following: 2 fresh or dried apricots; cantaloupe; ẵ mango; 1 large yellow (not white) peach or nectarine; ắ cup cooked broccoli; ẵ medium carrot; 8 to 10 large leaves of romaine lettuce; ẳ to ẵ cup cooked greens; ẳ cup cooked winter squash; ẳ small sweet potato; 1 tablespoon unsweetened canned pumpkin.
Calcium—five servings daily if you’re breastfeeding, three plus if you’re not. Many of these also serve up a considerable amount of protein. One serving equals any of the following: 1ẳ ounces Swiss cheese; 1ẵ ounces Cheddar cheese; 1 cup skim or low-fat milk; 5 ounces calcium-added milk; ẵ cup evaporated skim milk; cup nonfat dry milk; 1ẵ cups low-fat cottage cheese; 6 to 8 ounces yogurt;
frozen yogurt (calcium content varies, so check label or ask for nutritional information); 6 ounces calcium-fortified orange juice; 1ắ cups broccoli; 1 cup collard greens; 2ẵ tablespoons blackstrap molasses; 4 ounces canned salmon or 3 ounces sardines, with bones; tofu (calcium content varies, so check label; a serving should contain about 30 percent of the daily value—DV); 2 corn tortillas (again, check label). Mothers breastfeeding twins, triplets, or more will need an extra calcium serving for each additional baby, and may want to use calcium-enriched dairy products or calcium supplements to get their quota. Vegetarians who don’t use dairy products may find it difficult to meet the requirement from purely vegetable sources unless they are fortified with calcium (orange juice, for example) and may need calcium supplements. Though lack of calcium when breastfeeding isn’t likely to affect breast milk composition, the calcium drawn from a mother’s bones to produce breast milk may make her more susceptible to osteoporosis later in life.
Other fruits and vegetables—two or more servings daily. One serving equals any of the following:
1 apple, pear, banana, or white peach; cup fresh cherries or grapes; cup blueberries; 1 slice
pineapple; 2 cups watermelon; 5 dates; 3 figs; ẳ cup raisins; ắ cup cooked green beans; 6 or 7 asparagus spears; cup cooked Brussels sprouts; cup cooked parsnips, snow peas, or green peas;
1 medium potato; 1 cup fresh mushrooms.
Whole grains and other concentrated complex carbohydrates—six servings daily whether you’re breastfeeding or not. One serving equals any of the following: ẵ cup cooked brown rice, wild rice, millet, kasha (buckwheat groats), unpearled barley, bulgar, quinoa, or triticale; ẵ cup cooked beans or peas; 1 serving (1 ounce) cooked or ready-to-eat whole-grain cereal; 2 tablespoons wheat germ; 1 slice whole-grain bread; ẵ whole-wheat bagel or English muffin; 1 small or ẵ large whole-wheat pita; 1 corn or whole-wheat tortilla; 1 serving whole-grain or soy crackers; 2 rice cakes; 1 ounce whole-grain, soy, or high-protein-type pasta; 2 cups air-popped popcorn.
Iron-rich foods—one or more daily. Iron is found in varying amounts in dried fruit, beef, chickpeas and other dried legumes, potatoes in their skins, pumpkin, cooked greens, Jerusalem artichokes, oysters, sardines, soybeans and soy products, spinach, blackstrap molasses, carob, and liver.2 It is also found in wheat germ, whole grains, and cereals that are iron fortified.
High-fat foods—small amounts daily. While an adequate fat intake was essential during pregnancy, and your body was able to handle even those foods high in cholesterol with impunity, it is now once again necessary for you to consider limiting fat in your diet and carefully selecting the type of fat you do consume. It is generally agreed that the average adult should get no more than 30 percent of his or her total calories from fat. Those at high risk for heart disease should limit their intake even more rigidly. This means that if your ideal weight is 125 pounds, you need 1,875 calories daily, no more than 30 percent of those, or 62 grams, from fat. That’s the equivalent of 4ẵ fat servings (at 14 grams each) a day. If you’re lighter, you will need fewer servings; if you’re heavier, more. You can expect that you will get roughly one serving from drips and drabs in low-fat foods; the rest can come from fatty foods. High-fat foods that will provide you with one half a fat serving include: 1 ounce of hard cheese (Swiss, Cheddar, provolone); 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan; 1ẵ tablespoons light cream, pecans, peanuts, or walnuts; 2 tablespoons whipped cream; 1 tablespoon cream cheese; 2 rounded tablespoons sour cream; 1 cup whole milk or whole-milk yogurt; ẵ cup regular ice cream; 6 ounces tofu; ẳ small avocado; 1 tablespoon peanut butter; 3ẵ ounces dark meat or 7 ounces light meat turkey or chicken (no skin); 4 ounces fatty fish (such as salmon); 2 large eggs or 2 large egg yolks; 2 small biscuits or 1 average muffin; 1 slice of cake or 3 cookies (sizes vary with recipes). Pure fats which provide one full serving include: 1 tablespoon olive, safflower, corn, canola, or other vegetable oils, butter, margarine, or regular mayonnaise; 2 tablespoons “light” margarine; 2 tablespoons regular salad dressing.
Salty foods—limited quantities. While it may not have been necessary to limit your sodium intake during pregnancy, it might be smart to start cutting back on the salty stuff now. Read labels to screen for foods high in sodium, and avoid making them staples in your diet. Unless someone in your family is on a sodium-restricted diet, lightly salting to taste when cooking is fine. But remember that any family food you’re planning to also feed to your baby should go unsalted to the table—both because infants can’t handle a great deal of sodium and because exposing them to salt early will help give them a taste for it.
Fluid—8 cups daily whether you’re breastfeeding or not. (You may need to drink more if you’re
breastfeeding twins.) Water, sparkling water, fruit and vegetable juices, and clear soups are all good fluid choices. You can also count milk (which is about water); fruits and vegetables with a high water content will add more. But beware of too much of a good thing: excessive fluids (more than 12 cups a day if you’re breastfeeding one child) can inhibit breast milk production.
Vitamin supplements. Take a pregnancy/lactation formula daily if you’re breastfeeding, not as a replacement for a good diet but as nutritional insurance. The supplement should contain zinc and vitamin K. If you eat no animal products (not even milk and eggs), you should also be certain your supplement contains at least 4 micrograms of vitamin B12 (which is found naturally only in animal foods), 0.5 milligrams of folic acid, and if you don’t get at least half an hour’s dose of sunshine daily, 400 milligrams of vitamin D (the amount fortifying a quart of milk).
Even if you’re not breastfeeding, you should continue taking your pregnancy vitamins for at least the first six weeks postpartum. After that, a standard multiple vitamin/mineral supplement will fill in the nutritional gaps if you find you don’t always have the time or opportunity to eat as well as you’d like. A supplement designed for women in the childbearing years will provide the extra iron needed to replace iron that might have been depleted with pregnancy and/or post-partum bleeding and will again be lost when menstruation resumes.
IF YOU’RE NOT BREASTFEEDING
Good nutrition is important for all mothers postpartum. Eating well will not only help ensure a speedy recovery, but it will fuel you with the energy you’ll need to keep up with a growing baby (and to keep going in that sleep-deprived state they call new parenthood). It will also help ward off a variety of illnesses (from certain cancers to diabetes to osteoporosis) that are known to be diet-related. So even if you’re not breastfeeding, continue to eat to your good health, using the Nine Basic Principles and the Daily Dozen as a general guide to generally good nutrition—for your sake as well as your baby’s.
What You May Be Concerned About
EXHAUSTION
“I expected to be tired during the first few weeks after my baby’s birth, but it’s been a few months now since I had my baby and I’m still exhausted.”
Between recovering from the demanding physical biathlon of labor and childbirth, caring for a
newborn who hasn’t yet figured out the difference between day and night, and adjusting to the round- the-clock responsibilities of parenthood, virtually all new mothers feel like walking (and diaper- changing and breastfeeding) zombies at first. But while the postpartum recovery period is officially over after six weeks, feelings of exhaustion don’t usually end with it. Rare is the woman (or man, especially if he’s a stay-at-home parent) who escapes continued parental fatigue syndrome during the first year. And it’s not surprising. There’s no other job as emotionally and physically taxing as
parenting in the first year. The strain and pressure are not limited to eight hours a day or five days a week, and there are no lunch hours or coffee breaks to spell relief. For the first-time parent, there’s also the stress inherent in any new job: mistakes to be made, problems to solve, a lot to learn. If all
this isn’t enough to produce exhaustion, the new mother may also have her strength sapped by breastfeeding, by toting around a rapidly growing infant (and accompanying paraphernalia) and by night after night of broken sleep.
The new mother who goes back to work outside the home may also suffer from the kind of fatigue that comes from trying to do two jobs well. She gets up early to attend to several mommying jobs, often including breastfeeding, before she even leaves for her job away from home. When she returns home, she still has baby care and, often, cooking, cleaning, and laundry to contend with. To top it all off, she can be up with the baby half the night and still be expected to be alert, cheerful, and efficient in the morning. Exhaustion would be inevitable for Supermom herself.
Of course, it’s a good idea to see your doctor to be sure there is no medical cause for your
exhaustion (such as postpartum thyroiditis). If you get a clean bill of health, be assured that in time, as you gain experience, as your routine becomes routine, and as your baby begins sleeping through the night, the unrelenting fatigue will gradually fade (though you may not feel totally caught up on your rest until your children are all in school). And your energy level should pick up a bit, too, once your body adjusts to the new demands. In the meantime, there are ways to minimize that night-of-the-living- dead feeling:
Get all the help you can, and then some. Sign up help, paid or otherwise, to pick up the slack (and the groceries, and the house) so you don’t have to.
Share, share alike. Make a list of all of the baby-care tasks and household chores that need to be done, then split them evenly between you and your spouse. Assign according to schedule (if he works during the day, he’ll obviously have to do his share in the early morning and at night),
preference, and ability (keeping in mind that the only way to get really good at a task—whether it’s diaper or bathing—is to practice, practice, practice). If you are formula feeding, you can switch off on night feedings (one night on, one night off) so you can switch off on getting some sleep. But even if you’re breastfeeding, dad can rise to the occasion to do any necessary diaper changing before handing baby to you for a feeding. Or, keep the baby in a bassinet beside your bed (or, if you’re co-sleeping, next to you in bed) so you can just reach over and latch baby on. Once breastfeeding is established, you can also pump a bottle of milk each day for dad to give in the middle of the night while you catch some zzz’s.
Be an equal-opportunity parent. There is nothing, besides breastfeeding, that a father can’t do as well or better than a mother. Yet many a new mom doesn’t give dad a chance when it comes to baby care—or she stands over his shoulder criticizing so much that he ends up throwing in the diaper. So if it’s an “I’d rather do it myself because I do it better” mentality that’s standing between you and some rest, lose it now.
Turn in earlier. It may be stating the obvious, but earlier to bed will make it easier to rise. Don’t stay up late to watch the news or surf the Internet. Go to bed as early as possible to get as much sleep (even if it’ll be interrupted) as you can.
Nap when the baby naps. As crazy as that sounds (after all, there’s laundry, cooking, and a
thousand other things to do) and as unrealistic as it seems (especially if there’s a toddler at home or if older children need homework help), try to rest when baby does, even if it’s just for half of baby’s nap time. “Power naps” of even fifteen minutes can be surprisingly refreshing.
Don’t forget to feed yourself. Sure, you’re busy feeding your baby (if you’re nursing, it may seem like you’re always busy feeding your baby). But don’t neglect your own nutritional needs (which will be even greater if you’re breastfeeding). Grazing is fine (what new parent has time for a full- fledged meal during the day?), as long as the snacks you reach for are healthful ones. Keep a supply of easy-to-grab but nutritious foods in stock: cheese sticks, hard-boiled eggs, individual servings of yogurt and cottage cheese, small pieces of fruit, ready-cut raw vegetables and dip, cereal mix (combine a few of your favorites with some nuts and raisins in single-serving plastic bags), ready-to-eat edamame (soybeans), whole-grain crackers and pretzels, frozen fruit juice pops, frozen yogurt bars.