Question: Dear Doctors, I am currently breastfeeding my daughter who is 5 months old. I have contradicting information from the web. Some sites say that if the mother doesn’t take fish or multivitamins supplements, then breastmilk will not have any DHA/ARA. While other websites say that if Mother doesn’t consume enough vitamins including DHA/ARA, the milk will still have sufficient vitamins for the baby as it will take from the Mom’s supply.
My question:
1. If Mother doesn’t eat well or enough fishes or doesn’t take supplements, does her breastmilk still have DHA/AHA/ARA and other types of vitamins?
2. Does a mother need to take vitamin supplements while breastfeeding?
3. If breastmilk is refrigerated and used within max 48 hours, will all the vitamins including dha/aha/ara still exist?
4. i’m not sure if the food I eat is helping me produce nutritious milk for my baby, so should I supplement my baby with Formula milk just to ensure that she has enough nutrition?
Thanks.
Answer: Nursing mom shd ensure that they take a balanced diet and multivitamins are supplements to boost that especially if you r not eating right.That is important for you, as u need to care for your child . If you are tired bcoz u r not eating properly, its very difficult to keep up w d demanding baby who needs to feed every 2-3 houry.
The milk still contain d nutrients n vitamins, and if your child continues to grow at the expected rate, there’s no reason to change to formula.
Yes, u may also refrigerate up to 48 hours n the nutrients r not affected.