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Nutrition for Breast-Feeding Vegans

Vegan moms take note: if you’re breast-feeding, in many ways, you’re still eating for two. In particular, be extra vigilant about taking your vitamin B12 supplement daily because breast-fed babies of vegan moms can become deficient in this vitamin. In fact, the babies can be deficient without the mom ever showing signs of a deficiency herself. Vitamin B12 is a crucial nutrient for a baby’s healthy brain growth and function. In the case of most nutrients, even in famine conditions, the mother’s body will rob her own supplies to provide the baby with needed nutrients. But not in the case of B12.

Vegan Vocab

Vitamin B12 is an important nutrient for red blood cell formation and for healthy nerve tissues. Deficiencies can lead to anemia and permanent nerve and brain damage.

Yet it’s simple to prevent this and other deficiencies. After the baby is born, continue to take your prenatal multivitamin daily. More is not better in the case of vitamins, so don’t overdo it. Take vitamins that supply the 100 percent recommended daily allowance or less. Fat-soluble vitamins like A and E are secreted in human milk and could cause liver toxicity in the baby if mom takes too high a dose.

Also, eat about 500 calories more a day than you would if you weren’t pregnant or nursing. (That’s equivalent to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on 2 slices of whole-wheat bread, 20 dried apricots, or a couple handfuls of mixed nuts.) Be sure you don’t drop below 1,800 calories a day no matter what.

Is Your Breast-Fed Baby Getting Enough?

In our culture that likes to quantify everything, it can be initially unsettling that breasts don’t come with little liquid measuring marks indicating how many ounces are in there for your baby at any given time.

But like most things in nature, it’s not quite as straightforward as measuring ounces. In fact, lactating breasts are almost constantly in the state of milk production, and most moms will feel milk “let down” more than once during a feeding.

Additionally, if the nursing mother is working and pumping breast milk for other caregivers to feed the baby in a bottle during work hours, or if she is supplementing breast milk with formula, the amount of breast milk will adjust. And if you continue to breast-feed past the 6-month mark after solid foods are introduced, breast milk becomes one of many food choices, so the amount and frequency of nursing sessions changes dramatically and varies greatly from one mother-baby pair to another. It comes down to simple economics: demand equals supply.

Once you get the hang of it, knowing if your baby is getting enough breast milk usually comes naturally. Especially in the early months, there are some general rules of thumb to follow. According to the La Leche League:

◆ In the early weeks and months, your baby should nurse about 8 to 12 times a day.

◆ Typically during the first few days, she will wet only one or two diapers a day.

◆ After mother’s milk comes in, usually on the third or fourth day, the baby should begin to have 6 to 8 wet cloth diapers (5 or 6 wet disposable diapers) per day. (An easy way to feel the weight of a wet disposable diaper is to pour 2 to 4 tablespoons water in a dry diaper.)

◆ Most young babies will have at least 2 to 5 bowel movements every 24 hours for the first several months, although some babies will switch to less frequent but larger bowel movements at about 6 weeks.

◆ Watch the baby, not the clock. Let the baby nurse as often as she wants as long as she will.

◆ Babies may lose a few ounces in the first few days after birth. This is normal. But babies should gain at least 4 to 7 ounces per week after the fourth day of life.

© La Leche League International, October 2008.

If you have any concerns about weight gain or feeding patterns, contact your physician or a local lactation consultant. (Most pediatricians and family medicine physicians allow you to bring your baby in for a weight check free of charge.)

In the first 6 months,