A new food pyramid for nursing mothers.

One of my strongest memories about the final days of my pregnancy is eating anything I wanted.  I'd been doing my best to eat a balanced diet for the prior nine months, and I felt a huge sense of freedom knowing that I couldn't really mess my son up too much at that point by cutting lose.  I ate tons of Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby, which we'd bought in bulk after getting some bad information that they were discontinuing the flavor. 

And then came breastfeeding, and for some reason I just threw everything out the window when it came to my diet, especially in the first few months.  Actually, I do know why it happened:  a combination of postpartum depression, the unending pans of brownies from friends, and the fact that I seemed to be able to eat anything and still lose weight.  It got so bad at one point that I told my husband to ask our pediatrician, casually, if I could hurt the baby by eating a lot of brownies. 

So, I thought it was pretty interesting that the USDA released its first food pyramids for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers this week.  They also have a pyramid for mothers who are trying to lose weight while breastfeeding.

In general I think that this is a wonderful idea.  There is so much conflicting information on nutrition and diet out there, so it's nice to have a balanced, presumably evidence-based, standard for good diet while pregnant and nursing. 

One glitch with this pyramid is that it won't accept a baby's age if it's older than one year.  In fact, it only really works if the baby hasn't started solids, since the only options you can enter are exclusive breastfeeding, mostly breastfeeding, and mostly formula feeding.  I'm also uncomfortable with the statement, "the Dietary Guidelines recommend that breastfeeding women not drink alcoholic beverages," since alcohol intake in moderation is generally considered safe. 

Another nagging thought I have is that publicizing standards for healthy eating while nursing might deter some mothers from choosing breastfeeding.  Research has shown that some women choose not to breastfeed because they believe that there are too many 'rules' about what you can and can't eat.  So, talking about this does make me cringe just a little. 

In case you're wondering, the truth is that the quality of a mother's diet doesn't have much influence on the quality of her milk (one exception would be that vegans need a source of B-12).  Milk samples taken from well nourished and nearly malnourished mothers have been shown to be nearly identical.  Your body takes what it needs from your nutritional stores to make great milk for your baby.  If your diet isn't balanced you're the one who suffers, from things like low energy and increased susceptibility to things like colds (because your immune systems is weakened). 

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Comments

[Meleah]

My mother was shocked when she heard my LC tell me I could eat anything I wanted -- within reason. Thirty years ago my mother was told that you couldn't eat tomatoes or tomato products for fear of upsetting the baby's stomach as well as many vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower for because the baby would get gas. I always tell my family that mothers in other parts of the world eat curry while pregnant and breastfeeding -- if their babies can have curry mine can have salsa.

[Nola]

You know, I was always under the impression that since I needed that "500 extra calories a day" to breastfeed that I was pretty free to eat what I wanted. (I'm a vegetarian, eat pretty healthy anyway, but now I wouldn't have to feel guilty about all those chocolate chip cookies..).

But, my son has terrible tummy pains (no one sleeps for several days) when I eat any dairy and beans. I'm allergic to soy. As a vegetarian my protein sources were severely limited even with my rice protein shakes. So I was eating tons of grains and an almost 90% carb diet. But then I started geting really shaky if I didn't eat every few hours. I just couldn't get enough fats or proteins. At that point my son was also getting very aggitated. Wasn't sleeping well anymore, demanding milk all the time.

I finally spoke with my homeopath who told me I really need to get more protien. So after 14 years of being vegetarian I'm back on meat. Guess what? My son is back to his normal non-aggitated self. Sleeps really well again. Isn't demanding milk all the time.

I've gone through it all in my head. It wasn't teething, it wasn't a growth spurt, none of those things coincided. It was when I changed my diet that he changed.

I know malnourished people still breastfeed, but in my experience, diet was super important in making milk.

[cagey]

Overall, this is awesome and I will definitely be looking closely at it. One thing is does not help with is a pregnant mother who is still breastfeeding. As someone who was in that boat not so long ago, it is still fresh in my mind - the whole "eating for three" scenario. :-)

[Rachel]

Yes, this was kind of dissapointing for me because there isn't the option of pregnant and breastfeeding (future tandem mama here). Also, it only works for babies up to a year like you said. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding has good advice how to lose weight while breastfeeding. It says to not eat junk and walk 2 miles a day. I lost 60 pounds while breastfeeding before I got pregnant that way.

[Holley]

Very interesting, but it would help me more if it gave substitutes for Dairy. Kian has problems with milk proteins (like his siter before him). I don't think that is too uncommon and it would be a big help to see how to compensate.

I don't think that the pyramid will discourage women from breastfeeding--Nothing in my pyramid looked too cumbersome. Of course, I don't think it will encourage women to breastfeed either.

It is useful to women who want more information about healthy diets while breasfeeding. And hooray for including breastfeeding information--it helps make it more mainstream in my opinion. Now if they would just include breastfeeding through at least age two (preferably beyond)....

[tanya@motherwearblog]

Cagey and Rachel,

Yes, there's nothing for tandem nursing, which is too bad. I was also told that it you enter a higher weight number (can't remember how much) it won't tell you anything except that you should call your care provider. And, like I mentioned in the post, nothing about nursing an older baby.

I also read something interesting about a comparison someone did of diet information given to breastfeeding and formula feeding mothers. She found that formula feeding moms were basically told to eat what they wanted, and breastfeeding moms were given very specific dietary advice (for breakfast, this much cereal, this much orange juice, etc.).

- Tanya

[Susan]

I am a bit upset. I tried to do the pyramid and I am not accessible, since my nursing child is over age 2. This needs to be fixed...