Go read the Disclaimer again. I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. Seriously.
You do not need to consume milk products in order to make milk. Drinking milk or consuming milk products may trigger allergies in your exclusively breastfed baby. Most human mothers don't consume milk (for the most part only those with a European background can consume milk as adults without becoming ill). You do need to have enough fluid, enough calories and a wide enough variety of food to include everything needed to keep you healthy and help your baby grow. You also need sunshine, or a safe source of vitamin D.
Now is a good time in your life to pay close attention to what your body tells you. If you are thirsty, it is a good time to drink. If you are hungry, it is a good time to eat. If you have a craving for a particular food, maybe you need something in that particular food. If you are tired, it is a good time to rest. If you are reluctant to do something, eat something, drink something, it is a good time to refrain, or at least pause and give yourself time to understand why you do not want to do that.
Some people worry about the iron content of human breastmilk.
Alcohol is not as risky during breastfeeding as during pregnancy. Moderation is key.
Quite a lot of people, and some books, tell you to avoid certain foods while nursing. If you don't like those foods, anyway, feel free to use this as an excuse to avoid eating them. If you eat those foods, and you think your baby reacts poorly to them, you're probably right. Follow what your observations and instincts tell you is true for you and your baby. But if you eat those foods, and you are fine and your baby is fine, do not worry, and do not limit your diet because of someone else's theory. While many people worry about giving the baby gas, my baby farted constantly, and quite happily (just like mama and papa do -- we like beans, onions and cruciferous vegetables, so it sort of goes with the territory). However, when I inadvertantly ate some mozzarella cheese (it was in hummous -- how was I to know to check?!?) and reacted strongly (I am very allergic to cow's and goat's milk products), my baby was quite sick and painfully gassy for two or three days. From this I concluded that my baby -- like me -- is allergic to milk products, the proteins from which can pass directly through me and my milk and go into him and disturb his gut. When babies are very small, their gut is leaky; proteins can pass right through it into the bloodstream and cause problems. This can happen with a lot of foods.
If your baby has painful gas or fizzy or foamy poop, you might try rotating out some of the common food allergens (milk, soy, wheat, corn, etc. -- you can get lists from a lot of different places) for a few days and see if that leads to an improvement. Removing any of the common allergens from your diet is difficult to do; I do not advocate removing all of them from your diet just on the off chance they might cause a problem for your baby. You'll wind up weaning the baby just so you can eat again.
Many cultures think breastfeeding women should eat eggs, which might be because they are a good source of lecithin.
While not part of the normal diet of most white people in the US, dark leafy greens supply a lot of good stuff. If you haven't tried them before, you might now.
Copyright 2006 by Rebecca Allen.
Created January 29, 2006 Updated March 8, 2006