Nutrients For You When Breastfeeding
Your Nutrition This Month
As breastfeeding mums, your diet and how you nourish your body matter.1 If you are breastfeeding, here are the essential vitamins and minerals you need:
Month 6
First Year
As breastfeeding mums, your diet and how you nourish your body matter.1 If you are breastfeeding, here are the essential vitamins and minerals you need:
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is vital for the formation of red blood cells and producing energy. Where to find Vitamin B12? You can find Vitamin B12 in animal produce such as poultry and eggs.
Iron
Your iron levels may drop during breastfeeding. As such, replenishing your iron levels is important to prevent fatigue or an impaired immune system. Where to find Iron? Iron can usually be found in lean red meat and green leafy vegetables.
Calcium
As you might experience transient bone loss while breastfeeding, taking in calcium helps to build and maintain bone health. Where to find Calcium? Common sources of calcium include nuts and dairy foods such as milk and cheese.
Breastmilk is best for babies. Consult your doctor before deciding to use infant formula or if you have difficulties breastfeeding.
This month, your baby is laying the groundwork for speech with every sound he makes. Keep talking with him this month. Also, he’s becoming more aware of you as a separate person. A good way to help calm his fear of being alone is by playing “peek-a-boo.”
It may seem like the change happens overnight – one day, your baby needs help sitting up, and on the next he’s sitting up for the first time on his own. In fact, your baby has been silently working for months to sit up on his own.
He’s been strengthening his muscles by sitting in his infant chair and by sitting propped up against pillows. While the first time he sits tall, he’ll be leaning on his hands for balance, in the next two months, he will sit up completely and use his hands to play.
This month, your baby’s playful side may come out. Help him learn while he’s playing with:
Playing is teaching. Doing is learning.
Keep in mind that every baby develops on a different schedule, but by the end of month 6, your baby will likely be able to do the following:
Last month, your baby’s first fear may have emerged – the fear of strangers. This month brings a new one – separation anxiety.
This fear typically begins at 6 to 8 months of age. This is when your baby becomes aware that you’re separate from him, and this means you might walk away at any time. This can be scary for your little one.
If your baby cries when you leave the room, or wakes up in the night crying and refuses to go back to sleep this month, he’s probably suffering from separation anxiety. Your baby’s real fear is that you’re going to leave and never return. The best way to alleviate his fears is to leave, and then return. Then, repeating the pattern, until he realises you’ll always come back.
To make this fun, play “peek-a-boo” – go away and come back before the fear gets too strong. Then have fun watching the ecstatic look on your baby’s face when you return.
Your 6-month-old baby begins sleeping through the night. But he may still occasionally wake in the night. At this age, if he still wakes up several times a night, talk with your health care professional about possible causes and solutions.
During the day, your baby will be wide-awake and active for extended periods, taking two or three short naps totalling three to four hours. He will begin to explore objects (including his feet!) by putting them in his mouth. Also, he will start to pick up things by “raking” them with his fingers. Now, it’s a good time to be even more careful about what you leave around the house.
Helping your baby feel secure and engaged in the world now can help him achieve emotional health and mental aptitude as he grows. Doing this is surprisingly simple at this age:
References:
¹ Diet for Breastfeeding Mothers, Abbott Family. Available at https://abbottfamily.com.sg/articles/nutrition/diet-for-breastfeeding-mothers
SG.2022.27106.PND.1 (v1.1)
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