New Guide for Pregnant and Nursing Moms

The USDA announced a new addition to MyPyramid. They now have a section for pregnant and nursing moms. This is great news because not everyone has the ability to sit down with a Registered Dietitian and pregnancy and nursing are critical times for optimal nutrition.

All a pregnant woman has to do is enter her age, height, weight, and due date into the website and it will give her a meal plan and advice to follow. For breastfeeding moms, you type in the age of baby, mom's age, and if baby is nursing only or also supplementing with formula.

In addition to giving a calorie range and number of servings from each food group, the MyPyramid site has numerous resources for pregnant and nursing moms. Food safety is so important during this time, and there is a whole section with tips on how to keep yourself from getting food borne illness. There is even a section on mercury in fish.

If you are confused on how much weight to gain while pregnant, the site gives you a lot of good info on how to gain weight in a healthy manner. They also have tips on general guidelines for pregnant women.

For those women who are nursing but want to also lose some of their pregnancy weight, an entire section is devoted to helping you lose the weight while keeping your milk supply and diet quality high.

I am so glad to see such a great resource created with our government dollars.

Visit www.mypryamid.gov and play around on the site. There is great information for everyone on that site, and now pregnant women and nursing moms can get specialized advice!

Labels: MyPyramid, nursing, pregnant, Tara Gidus

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