oily fish and breast feeding

[chocolaterabbit]

I've just realised that you're not meant to eat more than 2 portions a week of oily fish while bf. I love oily fish,esp mackerel and ate quite a bit over Christmas (probably 5 portions a week for 2 weeks as lots of buffets at relatives houses etc)

Will this hurt DS? Why is the warning in place?

If this is something serious, it would be helpful if it could be occasionally mentioned by HCPs, instead of 'you can eat anything you like now, don't drink too much'

really? never heard this, just about shark, marlin & tuna which can uild up mercury. Even so i think if you went to see your gp and said you'd eaten shark every night for 2 weeks they'd say don't worry.
I really think it's fine, bf is NOT like being careful and you can eat and drink pretty much as you like. We had the opposite, HVs at our Sure Start were going to give a "what food to eat and what to avoid when bf"
what to avoid apparently involved peanuts, onions, alcohol no doubt, and i'm sure food to eat would have been fruit & veg and wholemeal everything, with 16 pints of water a day. way to make bf seem like a FT job!!

and afaik oily fish is good for brain development? as a vegi i was taking a substitute when pg

Really??? MUMOMEGA capsules - for pregnancy and bfing - have fish oils in too which are supposed to be good for brain, etc development. Has there been some new research on this?

Sorry, have just started a halfhearted diet and it said about this so I checked it with the FSA here which seems to confirm it. I'd thought oily fish was good as well because of the capsules so long as not too much Vit A which shouldn't matter after pregnancy.

www.food.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/2003/feb/tuna_mercury is the current advice on fish and bf - massively cautious, as the advice itself more or less admits....but nothing about restricting oily fish as far as I can see

chocolaterabbit - where did you hear this?

X posted. I see the site you link to says no more than two portions a week - with no reason given at all.

You could email them and ask.

It seems to contradict the site I linked to

pre menapausal women and girls aren't supposed to eat more than 2 portions a week. Post menapausal women, men and boys aren't supposed to eat more than 4 portions a week. I think its a thing that balances over your life so you can eat it every day for a bit then have hardly any for a bit. here its a building up over time thing.

Thanks Lucky Jim. Very interesting. I don't think I have regularly had that much, just a few binges when the opportunity presents itself. I never knew it was somethng women and girls should limit their intake of