Diet tips for breastfeeding mothers - healthy snacks during breastfeeding and peanuts

Diet tips for breastfeeding: Eat when you feel hungry, and choose healthy snacks.

• You will probably feel quite thirsty. Have a drink beside you before you sit down to breastfeed.

• Try to eat a wide variety of foods.

• Try not to restrict your diet unless you think a food is upsetting your baby. Always talk to your health visitor or doctor before cutting out foods.

• Avoid drinking too much strong tea or coffee.

Quick snacks for breastfeeding moms

Healthy snack ideas

The following snacks are quick and simple to make and will give you the energy and strength you need:

• Fresh fruit.

• Sandwiches or pitta bread filled with salad vegetables, grated cheese, salmon or sardine or cold meat.

• Yoghurts and fromage frais.

• Hummus and bread or vegetable sticks.

• Ready-to-eat dried apricots, figs or prunes.

• Vegetable and bean soups.

• Fortified unsweetened breakfast cereals, muesli or other wholegrain cereals with milk.

• Milky drinks or unsweetened fruit juice.

• Baked beans on toast or baked potato.

Eating Peanuts and breastfeeding  

Peanuts are one of the most common causes of food allergy. Peanut allergy affects about 1% of people and can cause severe reactions. Your baby may be at higher risk of developing a peanut allergy if you, the baby’s father, brothers or sisters have a food allergy or other allergic condition such as hayfever, asthma and/or eczema.

• If you would like to eat peanuts or foods containing peanuts (such as peanut butter) while breastfeeding, you can choose to do so as part of a healthy balanced diet, unless you are allergic to them or your health professional advises you not to.

• You may have heard that some women have, in the past, chosen not to eat peanuts while they were breastfeeding. This is because the doctors previously advised women that they may wish to avoid eating peanuts while they were breastfeeding if there was a history of allergy in their child’s immediate family (such as asthma, eczema, hayfever, food allergy or other types of allergy), in case small amounts of peanut in their breast milk increased the chance of the baby developing a peanut allergy. But this advice has now been changed because the latest research has shown that there is no clear evidence to say that eating or not eating peanuts while breastfeeding has any effect on your baby’s chances of developing a peanut allergy.

• If you have a child under six months and are not breastfeeding (for example because you are feeding your baby on formula), then there is no reason why you should avoid consuming peanuts or foods containing peanuts.