by Ruth Hofer

Navaho tradition has it that when a mother is careful about what she eats and does, the child will drink in this quality of carefulness along with her milk. He will get a taste of responsibility.  This is the reason, they say, that a breastfeed child is more willing to listen to the elders of the tribe than a bottle-fed child and why he is more likely to become a responsible member of his culture.  This means that for a Navaho mother, being careful about her diet while breastfeeding is an expression of love and concern on many levels.

-Hiilary Jacobson, p32 Mother Food

I used to see an acupuncturist skilled in fertility, pregnancy and post partum during my first pregnancy.  Close to my due date she gave me a seemingly unrelated list of foods to avoid for the first six weeks post partum, along with the instruction to gradually reintroduce them one at time, observing the baby’s reaction to the new flavour in my milk.

The idea was primarily to avoid the dreaded colic and keep the baby mellow. Furthermore, following this protocol would (hopefully) ensure a child that grows up allergy free and with an impeccable digestive system that works to the best of its potential.  An extra bonus being that by holding off for these early weeks you might be able to freely eat said foods down the track in your nursing relationship.  Whereas by indulging in it now might mean a baby who is always going to have a sensitivity to that particular food.  She swore by it, telling me stories of her three children, whom with the last-born she caved in and ate berries everyday.  He is the only one of her children to now suffer food sensitivities and digestive upsets while traveling, not to mention the diarrhoea and stomach pains he suffered as a new born.

Thinking that 5000 years of practice meant that traditional Chinese medicine (otherwise know as TCM)  might have worked out a thing or two (besides, I actually enjoy the idea of restricting my diet) I wholeheartly accepted her advice.

Foods to avoid for first six weeks postpartum

• Onions, garlic, leek, chives
• brassica family: cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, brussel sprouts
• stone fruit: peaches, plums, apricots, mangos
• melons
• berries (goji berries are okay)
• coffee, chocolate, tea
• peanuts
• tomatoes
• citrus (lemons and limes being okay in small quantities)
• chili
• vinegar

Avoiding stimulants is pretty straight forward, and it’s already somewhat common knowledge that cabbage and onions in the nursing mother’s diet can play havoc on the babies digestive system. The other foods on the list aren’t as straight forward without looking at it from a TCM perspective.  And as I’m not a TCM doctor myself I can’t go into any great detail, except to say it’s worked for me.  Also, I later found out, at the magical six weeks mark a lot of the baby’s digestive system kicks in for the first time, before that it was still developing.  At two weeks, apparently, there is also a major change.

Personally, I have found this advice to work really well. I liked the way it keeps me totally connected to my baby as I nourish them.  I found that I was really aware of how what I ate affected them.  By keeping my diet neutral I could tell immediately if something novel affected my baby is any way.  I personally liked the way it reset my palate, all flavours became more intense as I began to try them again.  My eldest is nearly three, and she has awesome digestion. As a baby in Bali she would eat with local families, constantly putting things in her mouth from off the floor and never once got sick. The only foods I could never eat, until she began eating solid food herself, were watermelons and oranges. Both those fruit in my milk would give her instant diarrhoea, but as soon as she ate other things besides breastmilk, watermelon and oranges were her two of her favourites!

So now your next question to me is probably going to be, well what can I eat?

There are tons of super nourishing, milk supporting raw foods that also tonify the baby’s digestion. Dates, spinach, all sprouts (especially sprouted grains), papayas, fennel, celery, cucumbers, pears, coconut, beets, chard, dill, basil, cilantro, carrots, almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, dandelion, sweet potato, avocados, tahini, nettles, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, anise seeds.  These foods help ‘build your blood’ which is then turned into milk, ensure that you milk is full of all the necessary fatty acids, and soothe your baby’s stomach.