Breastfeeding is widely recognized as the optimal form of infant nutrition, offering numerous health advantages for both the mother and the child. From a halachic perspective, breastfeeding is also highly encouraged, further emphasizing its importance. This article aims to provide breastfeeding mothers with a detailed guide to navigating their dietary needs while adhering to kosher guidelines. It addresses common concerns about calories, vitamins, minerals, and foods to avoid or limit, while also offering specific recommendations for mothers following vegan or vegetarian diets. Furthermore, it explores the intersection of Jewish law (Halacha) and breastfeeding, providing insights into related observances and practices.
Nutritional Needs of Breastfeeding Mothers
Caloric Requirements
Breastfeeding mothers generally require more calories to support milk production. It is recommended that well-nourished, breastfeeding mothers consume an additional 330 to 400 kilocalories (kcal) per day compared to their pre-pregnancy intake. However, the exact number of additional calories needed can vary depending on factors such as age, body mass index, activity level, and whether the mother is exclusively breastfeeding or supplementing with formula.
Vitamins and Minerals
While a balanced diet is crucial, it may not always guarantee adequate nutrition for breastfeeding women. Continued use of a prenatal vitamin after giving birth might exceed the iron and folic acid needs of a breastfeeding mother. The recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) represent the average amount of a vitamin or mineral needed to meet the daily nutrient requirements of most healthy individuals. In certain cases, breastfeeding mothers may benefit from taking a multivitamin supplement to bridge any nutritional gaps.
Iodine and choline are two essential nutrients for which a mother's needs increase during lactation. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that breastfeeding women consume 290 micrograms (mcg) of iodine and 550 milligrams (mg) of choline daily throughout the first year after giving birth.
Foods to Limit or Avoid
Generally, there is no need for breastfeeding women to restrict or avoid specific foods, and they should be encouraged to maintain a healthy and diverse diet. However, certain types of seafood should be consumed in moderation due to their mercury content. Fish is a valuable source of protein, vitamins, and minerals, but it can also contain mercury, which can pass from mother to infant through breast milk. If consuming fish caught by family or friends, it is essential to check for any fish advisories and limit serving sizes. Mercury can be detrimental to the brain and nervous system of anyone exposed to excessive amounts over time. Therefore, opting for fish with lower mercury levels is a wise choice for everyone.
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Caffeine is another substance that passes from the mother to the infant in small amounts through breast milk. While low to moderate caffeine consumption usually does not adversely affect the infant, high intakes can potentially lead to irritability, poor sleeping patterns, fussiness, and jitteriness. If an infant exhibits these symptoms after the mother consumes significant amounts of caffeine, reducing caffeine intake should be considered.
Special Diets
Vegan and Vegetarian Diets
Breastfed infants of women who do not consume any animal products may have very limited amounts of vitamin B12. Low amounts of vitamin B12 can put infants at risk of neurological damage from vitamin B12 deficiency. Iron may also be of concern.
It is essential for vegan and vegetarian breastfeeding mothers to ensure they are meeting their nutritional needs through a well-planned diet and supplementation when necessary.
Addressing Food Sensitivities and Allergies
Many breastfeeding mothers wonder if the foods they eat will affect their breast milk. Some may wonder if it is necessary to avoid certain foods to prevent digestive problems or allergies in their baby, or if they need to eat special foods to make the right amount of milk or the best quality milk for their baby.
The good news is that a mother's milk will probably be just right for her baby regardless of what she eats. Her body knows exactly what nutrition her baby needs at every stage of development.
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Dietary restrictions from pregnancy do not apply to breastfeeding moms.
In rare cases a breastfeeding baby may develop a food allergy to foods the mother is eating. The most common symptoms are green, mucus-like and blood-specked stools. Colic and reflux are not usually caused by food allergies.
The most common foods that cause allergies are dairy products, soy products, wheat and eggs. Less common foods that cause allergies include fish, nuts, peanuts or corn. A baby could develop an allergy to any food you eat.
Keeping a food diary of symptoms along with what you eat might help you know which foods are causing the problem. As long as your baby is gaining weight and not anemic, the allergy is not going to cause any long-term problems. You do not need to stop breastfeeding.
Removing the suspected foods from your diet by carefully reading all food labels should solve the problem but it may take 4-6 weeks for the infant’s symptoms to resolve.
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Dairy-Free and Soy-Free Diet
Milk and soy products are in many foods - some of which are obvious, others are not. Eliminating dairy and soy from your diet can be a little confusing because of the way ingredients are listed on labels.
Start by looking at food label warnings. If a product contains milk or soy, it must be included in the ingredient list or state on the label as “may contain,” “processed in a facility that processes,” or “processed on equipment with.”
When reading the ingredient list, look for these ingredients when determining what to avoid in your dairy-free and/or soy-free diet.
Dairy and Milk Products to Avoid: Milk products, including milk, milk solids, milk proteins, and hydrolyzed proteins, Yogurt, Cheese, including cottage cheese, Sour cream, Cream, Ghee, Custard, Pudding, Half and half, Nonfat dry milk, Whey products, including whey protein and whey powder, Casein/Caseinate, Milk chocolate and most other chocolates, Butter products, Lactalbumin
Soy Products To Avoid: Soy products, including soy protein and soy protein isolate, Soy milk, Soy flour, Soy yogurt, Soy beans, Soy nuts, Soy caseinate, Soy sauce and teriyaki sauce, Vegetable protein, broth, gum, and starch, Tofu, Miso, Edamame*Soy oil and Soy lecithin are okay
Dairy-Free and Soy-Free Options for Breastfeeding Moms: Drinks (Water, including seltzer waters, Milk substitutes, such as rice, coconut, or almond milk, Fruit and vegetable juice, Soda, Tea, Coffee, Milk-free hot cocoa), Breakfasts, Lunches, and Dinners (Eggs, Fruits and vegetables, Non-breaded meat, Grains and starches, such as potatoes, rice, quinoa, and most pastas, Beans, including hummus, Natural peanut butter and sun butter, Chia seeds), Snacks (Salsa and guacamole, Pretzels, popcorn, plain potato chips, corn chips, Most cereals, Gummies and hard candies, Most sorbets), Condiments (Ketchup, Mustard, Miracle Whip, Buttery spreads, Hershey’s chocolate syrup), Baking ingredients (Butter flavored Crisco, Guittard semi-sweet chocolate chips and Enjoy Life chocolate chips, HyVee white cake mix)
Kosher products that are labeled Parve or Pareve are certified dairy-free. This is indicated by a circled letter “U” (with no other symbols or letters) on the label.
Cultural Considerations and Food Restrictions
Cultural traditions can significantly influence dietary practices during breastfeeding. For instance, a study of Korean mothers revealed that many self-restrict certain foods without a scientific basis, believing they could negatively affect their infants. The most common self-restricted foods were caffeine, spicy foods, raw foods, cold foods, and sikhye (traditional sweet Korean rice beverage).
It is important to note that many of these restrictions are unnecessary and can potentially reduce the quality of life for breastfeeding mothers. Unless there is a clear indication of a negative reaction in the infant, mothers should be encouraged to maintain a balanced and enjoyable diet.
Breastfeeding and Halacha (Jewish Law)
Jewish law recognizes the importance of breastfeeding and provides specific guidelines for nursing mothers.
General Halachic Considerations
Breastfeeding is halachically encouraged, especially for the first two years of life. Nursing may be continued until the child’s fourth birthday (or if the child particularly needs it, the fifth birthday).
Up to the age of two, if a child has ceased nursing, he may resume breastfeeding even if he has only nursed for a few months.
Breast milk is kosher and pareve, and may be drunk by another individual who is not nursing.
Although pareve food normally may be warmed in a meat pot, breast milk should not be, lest an observer mistake it for cow’s milk.
Breastfeeding and Shabbos (Sabbath)
Expressing breastmilk for the purpose of using it is generally considered to be a Torah level melacha (labor on Shabbat), and therefore usually prohibited. In some cases, it is sufficient to express milk for a baby prior to Shabbat or Yom Tov. Breastmilk can keep in the refrigerator for up to three days, and even longer in the freezer.
However, there are cases in which a woman can pump on Shabbat or Yom Tov and save the milk. If a baby needs the milk to thrive-for example if the baby is sick or was born prematurely and doesn’t take solids yet-then it is permissible to pump on Shabbat, save and use the milk.
If it’s not clear whether the baby needs the milk (for example, a baby is healthy, but young and fully breastfed), check in with the baby’s doctor and then discuss the implications with a halachic authority.
If the baby doesn’t need the milk and pumping is to relieve engorgement or for supplementation, then a woman should usually reduce the prohibition by making the milk unavailable for use. Although this may feel counter-intuitive, it is halachically preferable to use an electric pump rather than a manual one. An electric pump extracts milk more indirectly than a manual pump or expressing by hand, and requires less continuous intervention. That lowers the level of prohibition.
The best way to use an electric pump is to have it set on a timer and to place the pump on the breast before it turns on, or to have it plugged into a special grama switch, which turns on the pump in an indirect way to make it less of a melacha (for example, this model offered by Zomet Institute.) For pumps that require pushing a start button, a smart switch button pusher can often work, or it may be possible to use an app to set up the pump in advance.
If an electric pump can be activated only by pushing a start button on Shabbat, the halachically preferable option is for a non-Jew to push the button. If this is not a practical possibility, it is permissible for the woman to push the button herself, preferably with a shinui (not in the normal manner, e.g., with the non-dominant hand).
Fasting
Jewish law exempts from fasting anyone whose health might be even a little harmed by it - this would include pregnant and nursing women whose health (or the health of her baby or fetus) might suffer from fasting.
Nursing mothers are obligated to fast on Yom Kippur. If a nursing mother’s baby depends totally on mother’s milk for nourishment, and she will not have enough milk for him if she doesn’t drink, she must consult a Rav for direction . Most nursing mothers find that if they drink a lot before the fast, they are able to fast and nurse, even if this is difficult.
Women who have given birth within one week of Yom Kippur must consult a Rav concerning their obligations on Yom Kippur.
Nursing mothers are obligated to fast on Tisha B’Av.
Nursing mothers are not obligated to fast on the minor fast days: the fast of Gedaliah , the tenth of Tevet , the fast of Esther , and the seventeenth of Tammuz , even if they suffer no discomfort. A nursing mother who wishes to fast on minor fast days is permitted to do so as long as she is not within a month of giving birth. There is, however, no necessity to try to fast .
Other Halachic Considerations
A husband may study Torah and recite blessings and prayers in a room in which his wife is nursing, but only if no parts of her body which are normally covered are exposed .
If the mother does not have any milk, and the only available option is milk from a non-Jewess, one should first turn to a milk bank that offers milk from a frum (Torah observant) woman. If this is not available, it is preferable (when not posing a medical risk), to use kosher formula.
One is not permitted to give a child to a non-Jewish woman to be nursed in the house of the non-Jewess ; However, in the house of a Jew it is permitted, as long as she is checked upon . At night , so meone must be there constantly .
Upon awakening during the night to nurse , a woman should wash negel vasser , however she need not say Birchos Hashacher .
If drinking water only in order to assist with the milk production, according to Halacha there is no need to make Bracha .
When a woman begins to nurse her baby boy she should begin with the left breast . The reason is so that he begins his first meal closer to the heart which is the resting place of Bina . It therefore it makes no difference if she is a right-handed or left-handed person . This is limited to a boy (who is required to learn Torah) and does not apply to a girl .
A woman should guard herself against anger, as this harms the milk .
A woman should not walk on a foul item and even more so on sewer water .
A woman should not walk around with her breasts exposed, as this harms the milk.
If a woman experienced a fright, she should not nurse until she rests. After the fright has passed, she should express some milk, and then she may nurse .
A woman should not nurse after marital relations for 36 minutes . If the child is crying 18 minutes are sufficient. If the child is weak and crying, then 9 minutes are enough . If even that won’t help, she may nurse as needed.