Sometimes it can feel difficult to identify how to best support yourself and your baby as you breastfeed. This can be especially true if you are working with specific nutrition plans, such as vegetarianism. The good news is that vegetarian and vegan diets can provide many health benefits and are great for getting enough fiber, managing cholesterol levels, and meeting fruit and vegetable targets. Research also suggests that parents who have diets lower in meat, fish and dairy have breastmilk that may be lower in certain environmental toxins. Still, it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough of certain critical nutrients that are more common in omnivore diets. Keep reading for some helpful tips about breastfeeding while on a vegetarian diet.
Choose healthy, energy-dense foods to keep up with an increase in appetite
You might have noticed that you feel quite hungry when you’re breastfeeding. Roughly 300 to 500 additional calories per day are recommended while breastfeeding. The exact amount you need depends on how much milk you are producing and how active you are. This increase in food quantity is important, but it’s also important to plan meals to include the quality nutrients you may be missing out on.
Add more nutrients
Luckily, a vegetarian diet can support your nutritional needs, as long as you are enjoying a variety of different vegetables, fruits, whole grains and proteins. However, particularly for those who are not consuming any animal protein at all, there are a few vitamins and minerals to pay extra attention to:
Calcium (1,000 mg/day)
Calcium exists in dairy, dark leafy greens, tofu, orange juice, sesame seeds, and fortified alternative milks
B12 (2.8 mcg/day)
You can find this in dairy products, fortified cereals, fortified plant milks and fortified soy foods. Nutritional yeast also packs a punch of B12.
Zinc (12 mg/day)
Zinc is in beans, nuts, whole grains, fortified cereals, and nutritional yeast
Omega-3 fatty acids (1.3 gm/day)
This exists in fish, fortified eggs, seeds (like chia, ground flax, and hemp) and walnuts.
Iodine (290 mcg/day)
Seaweed, fish and eggs are good sources of Iodine. Some dairy may also contain helpful amounts. While table salt often has added iodine, specialty salts (sea salt, Himalayan salt) and the salt in most processed foods do not have added iodine.
If you are a vegetarian mom and you are not sure if your diet is complete, talk with your doctor or a registered dietitian.. They can offer support and guidance as you decide what works best. If you are concerned with your nutrient intake, talk with your provider about whether or not you need to be supplementing beyond a typical postpartum vitamin.
Reviewed by the Ovia Health Clinical Team
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Sources
- Kolasa K, Firnhaber G, Haven K. Diet for a Healthy Lactating Woman. Clin Obstet Gynecol. 2015 Dec;58(4):893-901.
- The Risk of Breastfeeding on a Plant-Based Diet, Arthur I. Eidelman Breastfeeding Medicine 2023 18:1, 1-2
- Naina Dwivedi, Abbas Ali Mahdi, Sujata Deo, Assessment of endocrine disrupting chemicals in breast milk: Association with dietary habits and duration of lactation, Environmental Research, Volume 221, 2023,
- Maternal Diet and Breastfeeding, CDC, Feb 9th, 2024 https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding-special-circumstances/hcp/diet-micronutrients/maternal-diet.html
