How can you make sure your baby gets all the necessary nutrients whilst staying healthy yourself? Parenting expert and child psychologist Dr Pat Spungin, CEO of Raisingkids.co.uk, advises.

Raisingkids member's problem
What's your advice on the best diet be whilst breast feeding and is there anything that should be avoided?

Dr Spungin's advice
Generally, 'what's best for the mother is best for the baby' and there are no hard-and-fast rules about diet and breastfeeding. But babies sometimes react to certain foods eaten by the mother by developing loose stools or symptoms that may look like colic (for instance, drawing up legs, being uncomfortable an hour or so after a feed, or bringing up a lot of wind). Obviously, if these symptoms are severe and last more than a day or so, the baby should be reviewed by a Health Visitor of GP to exclude any other causes.

Of course, like so much else in the early days, this is all conjecture and informed guesswork, and you'll get to know your baby and recognise patterns that develop around eating certain foods. Some people think it is a good idea to try very strong things like hot curries with caution at the beginning of breastfeeding.

But returning to the theme of what's best for the mother, it's a good idea to have a long, cool drink during each feed, which protects you against dehydration. It may also be a good idea to eat foods that are good to fight fatigue (almost 100% in breastfeeding mums!) such as almonds, apricots, broccoli, spinach, brown rice, sesame seeds, sprouted wheat and wholewheat.

Some foods will produce different colour stools in the baby and this is OK if they are otherwise well. Persistent green stools should be mentioned to the health visitor or GP to check the baby is getting enough food.

Your query raises the issue of allergies too. If there are existing allergies in the family - maybe the baby's father or sibling - to food like nuts, it might be wise to avoid these in the diet to begin with.

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