DHA supplementation is now common in baby formula. With good reason! DHA is essential to baby brain development. The more DHA, the smarter the babies are.
DHA is important to breast fed babies too! Breastfed babies get their DHA from their mother's breast milk; and the amount of DHA in the breast milk is proportional to the amount in the mother's diet. Unfortunately, the standard American diet is very low in DHA. So, if you are a breast-feeding mother, make sure your diet is high in DHA and other Omega-3 fatty acids.
Here's how:
* Eat fish that are high in Omega 3's (but watch the mercury!). This article over at FitSugar breaks down the Omega-3 and mercury content by fish type. Salmon and Herring are the big winners here.
* Eat nuts and seeds that are high in Omega-3's (like flaxseeds and walnuts).
* Take a fish oil supplement. I like Trader Joe's Molecularly Distilled Omega-3 Fatty Acids supplement. Since they are distilled, there is no fish smell or nasty fish burps like you get with other fish oil supplements.
DHA is also important during pregnancy. So, take an Omega-3 supplement along with your prenatal vitamin, and your baby's brain will thank you!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Make Sure Your Breastfed Baby is Getting Their Omega-3's
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Great tip! The only other nutrient I was told to consider with a strictly breastfed baby is vitamin D...my pediatrician had me give my daughter a vitamin d supplement, since babies aren't in the sun enough to produce what they need.
ReplyDelete@Steph - Definitely! Very important for breast-fed babies to get their vitamin-D too! (even more important than the DHA, in fact). Thanks for mentioning.
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