For me, there were no diet restrictions that I had to adhere to to provide Maddy with breast milk.  I just drink a TON of water and keep my prenatal vitamins going.

I didn’t tailor my diet for her, nor did I stay away from anything specific.

Spicy foods? Bring them on.  Women around the world, where this is part of their daily diet aren’t giving up their curry, right?  Fatty cheeseburger? Sure!  Your body will get the most nutrients and put into your breast milk for your baby before it gives it to you.  If the mother has an unhealthy diet, the mother will suffer before the baby does.

As it is true for any individual, the healthier the diet the better.  Whole foods, all natural, etc.  Protein and healthy fats are great for a breast feeding mothers.  One thing that I fell short of was eating enough.

Be sure to eat a healthy amount of food to makeup for the calories given to the baby, but in short there was nothing I can’t/ don’t eat.

In fact, there was a new study done that suggests that spicy foods are good to eat while breastfeeding, as we are helping build their pallet through the different tastes we provide through our milk.  The more variety, the better.

It’s been shown that breastfeeding babes grow up to be less picky than their formula fed pears because of this.  They have had a plethora of different tastes through the placenta when they were in the womb and through our milk.

So eat well, eat a lot and don’t worry about any restrictions unless your babe seems to develop an intolerance to something.  Then and only then do you have to think about looking at your diet.  But even still, there are usually other things at play besides a mother’s diet, so in my opinion, I would seek help from a IBCLC before cutting anything out, and do it under their guidance.