Foods for the blues?

[Straggletag]

I just finished posting on the Mental Health board about coping with my seasonal and baby blues, and it occurred to me that part of my problem might be nutritional, so I was wondering if the experienced TF folk had any advice on foods that helped sort out depression.

In my specific case, I'm one month out from birth and tandem nursing a newborn and a 3yo. The newborn is exclusively and plentifully breastfed. Nowadays the 3yo is almost exclusively breastfed again. They've both just gone through growth spurts or are going through them. I'm dropping weight fast, I'm already thinner than I was pre-pregnancy.

Our diet has suffered from the chaos of a newborn in the house. We still eat a variety of seasonal veggies and fruit, but meat has almost vanished because it's tough to get out to the farms. I do have some in the freezer. I'll admit it: we're eating a LOT of quick pastas with dairy or veggie based sauces, a smattering of cured meats, and mostly eggs and dairy for protein.

Any help would be lovely, I'm very anxious not to slip off a moody cliff and become really depressed, my family (and myself, I hope) deserve better.

[Metasequoia]

First thing I'd get is some fish oil - Carlson's is good. You can get a big bottle online for about $22 + $3 shipping - so worth it. Fermented cod liver oil would be good too, I'm partial to cinnamon.

I've been there with the tandem nursing, it is draining...

I know it's tough, but it might be really helpful to try to cut back on the grains & up the meat/fish/poultry. You'll get that feel good "high" from carb-heavy meals, but then there's the slump.

[Metasequoia]

I mentioned the fermented cod liver oil because of the vitamin D content, but you *might* need additional D on top of that, if you're low. It can help with mood problems.

We take fermented cod liver oil, fish oil & D daily & I definitely notice a difference, especially at this time of year.

[kjbrown92]

Magnesium might help (pine nuts, chocolate)
gluten (pasta) can cause depression
but I think in this cause you definitely need more protein/fats to keep the energy up

[newcastlemama]

I also recommend some meat (beef liver if you can!) and CLO. Studies have shown nursing mamas generally need about 4,000iu of vitamin D so I take D3 to get up to that amount everyday.
I have been there s. Ask some people for help too. Also, those spectrum lights helped me when I was having seasonal depression issues.

Blessings,
Jen

[AJP]

Nutritional yeast has helped me out of a few rocky spots, 1 heaping TB daily dissolved in juice or added to smoothies. There are a lot of different nutritional causes of depression, B vitamins can be one (that's what nutritional yeast gives you), also vit. D and omega-3s, zinc, and others. Check out www.rebuild-from-depression.com for ideas.

[Straggletag]

We're going shopping tomorrow, so I'll keep an eye out for pine nuts and liver. I already have vitamin D, nutritional yeast, and fish oil on hand. I'd love to incorporate more fish, preferably raw. I remember how good I felt when I was getting regular doses of liver and sushi.

About spectrum lights, we already use the cheap kind that look more or less like a normal lightbulb. I'm not up for buying a special lamp just yet. However, are there such lightbulbs that would fit in a regular lamp and work with kitchen herbs, too? It may sound strange, but the sight of real, natural living grees like moss gives me a huge lift.

I wish I could get help. My DH does everything he can, and that's a lot since he works at home, but he has limits, too. His family is out of the picture (more like out of the question), and my mother isn't that sort of grandmother.

It's getting terrible right about now with DH passed out on the couch from exhaustion, it's terriby dark, and the 3yo is nursing, but fidgeting. She just won't sleep and I have to really stomp that furious nursing agitation in my chest hard to not really lash out at her. Thank God the 1mo is sleeping (for now).