——– I assume your breastfeeding experience was quite smooth as you changed to “Mastugaoka Gohan” since pregnancy, but did you still have troubles or really experienced what Shoko (the director) was telling you on breastfeeding?
(Mama A)
My three months old baby cried so much when I ate oranges! Well, I ate two whole oranges not just a few segments! But I still didn’t realise why my baby was crying at first. . .
I thought really hard and thought maybe it was the fruits I was eating. I couldn’t believe that at first so tried eating again and sure enough my baby cried again so I don’t eat it now.
(Mama M)
Me too, I eat things like meat and fish because my older boy who is eight, eats so much at the moment, but when I ate some melon, which he left, the baby cried so much! It was a real surprise! So I haven’t eaten fruits since. I am very glad that the baby is ok with meat, fish and some fries too.
———- Eating sweet food really does make a baby cry doesn’t it?
(Mama H)
In my case it is chocolate. . . I love it so I used to eat it everyday before pregnancy, but I think that was the reason why I had such a trouble breastfeeding at the beginning as my baby didn’t want to take my breast.
But after I started to look after my diet, my baby takes my milk very well.
Now, if I eat chocolate, my breast gets lumpy right away and it also has an effect on my skin, so I am too scared to eat it!
(Mama E)
In my case the trouble was fish. I never really used to eat fish or meat. But since pregnancy, I started to eat some fish. Then both my mother and mother in law were so happy that I eat fish that they brought over a fish dish for me every day. . . which resulted in clogging up of my milk ducts. . . it was really hard.
—– Oh it must have been a burden on your system to eat it every day as you were not used to it.
(Mama O)
Me too, fish, especially Sashimi (raw fish) was bad.
I ate meat and fish like normal and even after attending “Shoku no Kai” it is not like I stopped eating them, I just ate more vegetables. Though during my postnatal stay here I really was surprised of the amount of vegetables in a meal and it really is fine to eat almost only vegetables!
Anyway, so while I was staying here, I felt how lovely the breast milk smells and how lovely the smell of the baby smelling like breast milk is but,. . . . when I left here and ate Sashimi at home, my baby’s mouth started to smell like fish too! I was really shocked on the direct influence on my diet on my baby.
——– How nice you were aware of smell of the milk and the baby!
(Mama O)
I have more to tell you.
I love fish roe for example and even I don’t buy them myself, there was a time when I got given a lot from a friend so I ate it everyday, then my baby started to have red rashes!
I thought of fish roe as the culprit, so stopped immediately then it cleared too. Yes, I felt the link very much.
Since then I am much more careful and maybe as a result, I think my baby has lovely skin!
——— Oh yes we are aware of egg allergy but we forget that fish roe are also eggs. The new year is coming, remember Kazunoko (one of the fish roe eaten very often as part of new years’ cerebration) is also fish roe!
Ye, it is very nice, especially as a mum when the baby’s skin is nice.
(Mama S)
I also have an experience with fish.
My baby was around three month old, until then I never experienced milk ducts getting clogged up or experienced lots of crying but on that day, my baby just did not want to latch on, and even when I put my nipples in the mouth, my baby would let go of it without drinking. So I thought hard and remembered I ate some grilled mackerel the day before. So was it the smell of the fish in the milk? I was really amazed how much it was affected!
———- Yes, babies are really sensitive around two to three months old.
But I am sure it is also because you generally have a very good diet so that baby notices more changes to the milk.
(Mama KK)
My husband has a business at home, so we have lots of guests, and they all say what a well-behaved baby we have! Well, the truth is that my baby is great during the day but cries a lot at night.
Anyway, I do feel that it is due to the meals I eat too.
Once I left here, I went to my husbands parents home for a while, and during my stay, my mother in law was really supportive and made a huge effort to cook like “Matsugaoka Gohan” for me. It is really difficult to cook for yourself straight after birth, but on the other hand it is not very easy to request the method of cooking to someone who is helping you so maybe there should be a “Take out Matsugaoka Gohan”, so you can show it as an example? Then they can see for themselves how mild the flavour is and how easy it is to cook like this, for example, you just need to sprinkle sesame seeds on boiled vegetables!
——– That is an idea. If you cannot attend “Shoku no Kai” or find it difficult to explain, in that way you can try to copy direct from it!
(Mama KM)
In my case I spent about one month at my parent’s home after leaving here. (Note: It is very common in Japan to go to the parent’s home after giving birth to a baby). My mother’s cooking is far from “Matsugaoka Gohan” so at the beginning, I was just selecting leafy dishes out of what my mother cooks but then I lost so much weight. . .
—— Little Sou (the baby of Mama KM) does look like he needs a lot of milk! (Everyone laugh as he is really chubby)
(Mama KM)
So from then on, I started to include small amount of meat and fish in my diet.
—— It is fine to choose things that give a good balance, depending on what is best for the mother and the baby.
(Mama T)
I have not have any concerns and have been having a really lovely motherhood without any troubles as such, maybe because my diet was generally like this since before pregnancy.
This is not about me or the baby but my older son who is four, he loves boiled green leaves. . . it is quite rare isn’t it to have such a four year old!
—— Oh that is so lucky, I also have a four year old son and my home cooking is Matsugaoka style, but he really doesn’t eat much vegetables!
(Mama T)
I feel it is because I came here since the pregnancy of my older child. I am very proud of my vegetable lover son.
(Mama N)
I do “diaper free” at home. . .
(Everyone )
Wow that is amazing!!
(Mama N)
. . . I do really take on board what I learned here.
But if I eat something else when eating out, my baby will have diarrhoea instantly! Things like caffeine, is really not tolerated and lead to diarrhoea too. Further more, having caffeine makes it much harder to put my baby to sleep at night, so then that is harder for me too!
So I am definitely careful of what I eat because when the baby is happy, it is easier for me too.
—– Yes that is true, if the baby is happy because of small effort on the diet, that is much easier isn’t it. I know how hard it is when the baby cries.
(Mama N)
Oh yes, and Mochi rice (Glutenious rice) was not good either.
My mother in law brought Chestnut Okowa (mochi rice steamed with chestnut) and she told me that it will be fine as only one third of it is mochi rice. I also thought maybe that is true so I ate it. But then loads of milk came out – well it was much “heavier” than usual, so my baby slept too long and I was in agony as my breast had too much milk. I tried to wake my baby to feed more but it would fall asleep right away, without taking much, maybe it was too heavy for its tummy.
I was amazed how little can do so much!
—– Oh that must have been hard but it is amazing how responsive your baby was to the change in breast milk!
