Tuna and breastfeeding.

[catlvr976]

I am on WIC, and as some of you know, if you are breastfeeding, you get tuna (among other things). Anyway, I've been kind of worried about eating it b/c I've heard about the mercury content in it. I searched yesterday and found that the tuna WIC allows (chunk light) has less mercury in it than the white albacore.

Does anyone have any more info on this? I like tuna and have 5 cans or so, but am worried that if I would happen to eat too much that too much will get into my milk and dd would be consuming it.

Any thoughts? Anyone know how much would be too much?

Thanks again!

[Quirky]

Hmmm, that's a really good question. The stuff I've seen on tuna has all been specific to pregnancy, not breastfeeding, but I think you're right to be concerned.

I would think that if you follow the same guidelines for breastfeeding as for pregnancy your dc would probably be fine. I.e., one serving a week or less. And don't eat other potentially high-mercury fish like shark, swordfish, tilefish, or king mackerel.

HTH!

[gigglesgalore]

http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/tunaadvicenew
Here's a link with some info

I also found this online:
You should avoid eating shark, swordfish and marlin and limit the amount of tuna you eat. Don’t eat more than one tuna steak a week (weighing about 140g cooked or 170g raw) or two medium-size cans of tuna a week (with a drained weight of about 140g per can). For canned tuna, this means about six rounds of tuna sandwiches or three tuna salads.