I can't stop eating rubbish!!!!!

[Thejoyfulstar]

I seriously need some kind of help. Come on, if anyone has been through this then talk to me!

I have three amazing kids. One is a 6 month baby who I'm breastfeeding, and I am delighted to be breastfeeding her because we had a lot of problems getting feeding established at the start. She is the loveliest, smiliest, most sunny and pleasant baby. She sleeps OK at night but it just takes a quick go on the boob to put her back over.

She is honestly no bother BUT when she goes down for the night at 11ish, some kind of absolute sugar monster comes out in me. I go to the fridge or cupboard and just gorge on sweets. I momentarily lose my mind and then when I've had 'enough' I feel awful!

I do normally have to watch my weight and generally maintain a slim size 8 figure pre each baby. At night I seem to have this huge stress release which entails stuffing sugar into mouth and my weight is creeping up, not down.

I've ordered Allen Carr's book on quitting sugar which arrives tomorrow, but I would love to know if anyone can relate? I feel like I've lost the plot for the 5-10 minutes these binges last: I'm not operating on a logical level at all. I'm out of control.

In order to preempt some questions, my husband is very hands on and tends to do a huge amount with the older two, who are quite young. My baby is a total breast addict and is attached to me quite a lot. Husband has tried to settle her at night and she won't have it. We do need to try again though so I don't feel so overwhelmed.

Help!

You have to top up your body to be able to feed from it. Something that Alan Carr, as a man, will have no experience of.

Perhaps it might be more useful to search for books explaining how to look after your body while breastfeeding.

Sounds like you want to relax ASAP and you’ve conditioned yourself to use food to do this. You need to swap the food for a relaxing bath or something else that can help you unwind.

Both points are true: I am normally very into nutrition and optimising calories etc but I've recently lost my mind. I do have a sugar problem that has completely exploded lately. My baby goes down for the night at about 11, and sometimes later. I trust that her sleep patterns will even out in time but I'm often too exhausted to do anything like have a nice bath etc.

Sometimes when we are tired our messages get mixed up. Sugar gives us energy, so we seek food.

Don't deny yourself. Eat something low GI first, granary toast with butter or peanut butter, or flapjacks or a healthy cereal. Then you can take the brakes off and have something else if you still want it.

You need food. Eat better, then indulge.

I binge sugar when I'm tired. Have you tried going to bed at 11pm?

Have you tried giving her plain cool, boiled water at 11pm? I did that on both my babies and they dropped that 11pm feed within a week.

I had this for about 6 months when my two were young. I’d drop my eldest at play school, then on the way back with baby I’d buy cream cakes (which I never normally crave), chocolate, caramel biscuits etc and munch it all when I got home with a cuppa (or two). An absolute sugar monster like you say. I put it down to a chemical imbalance/ need for more calories at that time but it suddenly went and I was back to a normal more or less healthy diet.
Could you get rid of the tempting foods in the house?