Hungry all the time breastfeeding

[user4858]

Not talking about the baby but me! My diet is terrible since having DD. I crave crap and often give in. I know it's bad as I need to be eating healthy now more than ever.
Have others found this to be the case with bf? Did it stop when you stopped bf? Im concerned my body has got use to eating all this extra food so once I do stop bf I will put even more weight on. I think I'm lucky I haven't put a lot of weight on I can only assume it's the calories you burn from bf.

I was the same. Just try to snack on healthy stuff too. I used to have a plate of food next to me as I sat in the sofa eating constantly. 😳

I was exactly the same.

Eventually I realised that a lot of the time I was actually thirsty rather than hungry. I'd drink half a pint of water wait 20 minutes or so then if I was still hungry give in to the rubbish. A lot of the time it solved it (but not always those chocolate bars and crisps have to be eaten by someone after all!)

Haha thanks glad to know it isn't just me. Agree it could be thirst will try drinking more. DH watched me eat 10 Jaffa cakes in one sitting in shock yesterday. My diet use to be really good especially when I was pregnant

Your DH would never cope with me.. I can eat 2 packs of those in a sitting given half a chance :)

I lost a fair bit of weight bf DS1 (heading rapidly for underweight). HV looked at me and said ‘do you eat chocolate?’. I looked embarrassed and admitted I was eating full meals and two chocolate bars a day. HV response ‘as long as you’re eating proper meals then now would be the moment to deploy a third chocolate bar’.

And yes, I did have to relearn not to snack so much after I stopped feeding (although it was gradual as I weaned slowly).

Jaffa cakes are 90% air and 10% healthy oranges.

I was like this. Was permanently ravenous. Could have eaten a scabby head, any time of day or night. I spent more on extra food for me than I would have done on formula.

While I didn't feel anything like as ravenous after I had stopped, I had definitely got used to the extra food, and found it tough to cut down, especially as I was still sleep deprived. If I were you, I would try and rein it in as much as is possible, when gnawing hunger is your constant companion.

I was buying extra cookies for middle of the night breastfeeding sessions. Had a bedside cabinet full of cheddars and fig rolls. Bollocks to healthy, it needs to be something you can lean over and grab with one hand and not too rustly. Save the healthy for your proper meals and snack away!

(Disclaimer: in case you can’t fall, I am not a dietician )

*tell not fall

Yes - I found I was constantly hungry too. With my first during the middle of the night feeds when they are very little and you know you are going to have to change a dirty nappy so you’re up for a long stretch of time it was really bad. I started taking a banana up to bed with me, this was rapidly joined by a cereal bar (still trying to be healthy) and then I found that I could just about fill myself up by adding a pack of hula hoops (bbq flavour!). Thankfully by the time the night feeds got a lot shorter, nappy change wasn’t required I didn’t keep that up for too long. She weaned very gradually and I felt like my appetite balanced out. I’m now 2 years into feeding twins, and basically had got used to having 4 meals a day (you can have a lot of chocolate bars when you’re feeding 2!). I have found though that now we are down to just a morning and bedtime feed (and I don’t know how much they are actually getting) that my weight which has gone down to below my pre-pregnancy weight is starting to go up. Just enough that I’m going to have to do something about it and I’ve definitely got used to eating more. I think the struggle really though is more to do with being very tired and just grabbing chocolate and sweet things rather than taking the time to prepare something filling and more healthy. I’m also hoping my appetite will reduce a bit with the warmer weather as I definitely seem to react like a bear about to go into hibernation when it’s cold and want to eat more (and more).