The importance of healthy eating during breast-feeding

As regards the World Breastfeeding Week and aiming to provide tools to provide the right nutrition for the pregnant and their babies, the British Hospital carried out a healthy eating workshop on breastfeeding, which included addressing techniques, myths and facts regarding this essential stage for the development. The Breastfeeding Polyclinic and the British Hospital Nutrition and Dietetics Department, have introduced this initiative, which had its beginning in the concerns raised by members of the institution following its ongoing policy of health education and prevention. The workshop which was carried out with the active participation of pregnant and babies’ mothers, was focused on issues such as the advantages of baby´s breastfeeding, the proper feeding of the pregnant as well as mothers who breastfeed, and the right extraction and handling of breast milk, among others. The Graduate in Nutrition Lucia Augulla, Marcela Fernández and Fernanda Larrea, and the Graduates in Nursing Veronica Mezquita, led the different sections of the workshop. The nutritionists recalled that in pregnants´diet cannot be missed: • 3 dairy products per day: milk, yogurt or cheeses, preferably of low fat content; • Meat once a day: beef, chicken or pork (lean cuts) and fish. Choose any fish once or twice per week; salmon, halibut, anchovies and fresh tuna, provide healthy fats; • Vegetables of different colors: every day at lunch and dinner; • 3 fruits per day; • 2 to 3 tablespoons of crude oil: canola, extra virgin olive oil:, high oleic sunflower, soya; • Food that provides energy: rice, flour, oats, pasta, grits, corn, potato and sweet potato, combined with meat and vegetables at lunch and dinner. At least once per week also include legumes (lentils, chickpeas and beans); • Bread: at breakfasts and afternoon snacks; • Plenty of fluids: preferably water. Furthermore, they explained that during breastfeeding "the nutritional needs of the mother increase in order to support the growth and development of the child". Part of this is obtained from the nutrients stored during pregnancy and the rest should be added to the mother’s feeding. It is enough to add to the mother´s daily diet a dairy, a fruit and a loaf of bread. The benefits of breastfeeding for the baby are very important: • It provides all the nutrients the baby needs for a normal growth and development; • It is easily digested; • It strengthens the emotional bond between mother and child; • It increases the baby’s defences and protects the baby from infectious diseases; • It stimulates the baby´s intellectual, visual and sensory development; • It reduces the risk of obesity in later stages of life; • It reduces the risk of develop diabetes. Professionals reviewed with participants some myths that are repeated, such as the fluid requirement which increases during breastfeeding, that there are food that should be avoided during breastfeeding, the calcium´s needs also increase during the same period, that there are food that encourage breastfeeding, or that the amount of milk produced depends on the size of the mammary gland. Furthermore, it is a reality that the mother's diet affects the taste and the color of her milk, because a varied diet will contribute to the baby´s food acceptance.