‘Chicken-flavoured two-minute noodles’: how a dietitian rates this mum’s diet

Tayla Thomas is a vocalist and theatre performer. The 30-year-old shares her day on a plate.

7.30am Cold oat latte and a lukewarm bowl of oats with a teaspoon of brown sugar while I get my toddler and baby ready for the day. My breastfed toddler has a suspected cow’s milk protein allergy, so I avoid dairy.

10.30am A handful of raspberries and a handful of popcorn on the way to a photoshoot. A can of flavoured sparkling water with no sugar.

2pm Oat cappuccino, two glasses of water and a baguette with chicken and salad.

3pm Wholemeal chicken-flavoured two-minute noodles. This isn’t a great choice but as a breastfeeding mum I feel hungry pretty much all day and it was all I had at rehearsals with me.

5pm A pear and a glass of water.

6.30pm Chicken parmigiana with a pear salad, balsamic vinegar dressing and corn on the cob. Two more glasses of water.

Dr Joanna McMillan says

Top marks for … Eating and drinking regularly throughout the day. Your energy needs are significantly greater when breastfeeding, and higher than during pregnancy, but so are your fluid needs. You could increase this even more as you really need about three litres a day.

If you keep eating like this you’ll … Risk depleting your body’s stores of calcium in your teeth and bones, as this goes into breast milk for your growing child’s needs. You need to find alternative, non-dairy calcium sources. You may also be short on the long-chain omega-3 fats and iodine that are required for brain development in infants and young children.

Why don’t you try … Choosing an oat or soy milk fortified with calcium. Getting enough sunshine to produce vitamin D, essential to utilise calcium. Adding oily fish with edible bones – sardines, anchovies, canned salmon or mackerel – as these provide omega-3s as well as calcium, iodine and vitamin D.

Tayla Thomas stars in Stiles & Drewe’s The Three Little Pigs, playing at National Theatre Melbourne from December 18.

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