by: Jenna Lindamood, RD
As you know from some of my previous posts, a woman’s needs for certain nutrients increase during pregnancy. Some of these nutrients are more difficult to obtain from a vegetarian diet. Even so, vegetarians can have healthy pregnancies, resulting in healthy babies. Pregnant vegetarians can benefit from good prenatal care and from consulting with a Registered Dietitian for careful meal planning. There are a few different types of vegetarians. These include:
by: Jenna Lindamood, RD
You know that I recently began a blog about nutrition during pregnancy. What you may not know is the personal motivation behind my interest in nutrition during pregnancy, or why I haven’t posted in a while.
On September 30th, my daughter was born four weeks early, catching me a bit off guard and unprepared! Since then, my own focus has shifted a bit from one of nutrition during pregnancy to one of nutrition for nursing women and for infants. As I mentioned in my first blog post, I hope to expand my blog to cover these topics as well.
In the meantime, I’d like to share with you the little bit I’ve learned in the three weeks since my daughter was born. First of all, breastfeeding is hard! Just because it’s natural does not mean it comes naturally. It takes practice and patience, and it’s often downright frustrating, but I really mean it when I say it’s worth it in the long run.
I don’t mean to imply that I’ve already mastered it, either. Although I’m a Registered Dietitian, I was (and remain) far from an expert on breastfeeding. My daughter and I have had some additional challenges as well, because she was four weeks premature. On her first day of life she had low blood sugar and they had to give her a bottle of formula to bring her blood sugar up. Supposedly, bottle feeding can interfere with establishing good breastfeeding. Then she had trouble with jaundice, which made her sleepy and interfered some more with her feeding. Then she had to go to the NICU for a couple of days, and again, they fed her bottles. We have never caught up to a point where I can exclusively breastfeed her, without supplementing with bottle feedings of both pumped milk and formula.
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by: Jenna Lindamood, RD
As you know from some of my previous posts, a woman’s needs for certain nutrients increase during pregnancy. Some of these nutrients are more difficult to obtain from a vegetarian diet. Even so, vegetarians can have healthy pregnancies, resulting in healthy babies. Pregnant vegetarians can benefit from good prenatal care and from consulting with a Registered Dietitian for careful meal planning. There are a few different types of vegetarians. These include:
by: Jenna Lindamood, RD
Sadly, just at a time in life when they’re hungrier than ever, pregnant women are supposed to avoid or limit certain foods! This list of foods can be hard to remember, and it gets even more complicated if you have a condition like gestational diabetes (more on that in a future blog post).
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