To ask what I can't eat when breastfeeding?

[CustardCreamLover]

My husband has decided he has a medical degree and is now trying to dictate what I can and can't eat while breastfeeding. According to him I definitely can't eat chocolate and all vegetables have to be cooked to a mush. I think this is all crap especially reading advice from NHS and such like.
And to be honest reading the internet I shouldn't eat anything apart from air 🙄

So maybe if there are some medical professionals out there who can tell me what I can't eat I can take it to him (although multiple midwives in the hospital told us that there isn't anything off limits just in moderation and apparently he still knows better because it's what his mother and sister have done). Because otherwise I think I'm going to divorce him.

Just on your constipation worries. Both mine were ebf and used to go up to 10 days without having a poo. Apparently this is totally normal for some babies. It used to worry me insanely though! Just watch out for the poonamis which can be rather

Nothing you eat will affect your baby adversely (unless there are intolerances involved). The only thing some foods do is give them wind. Especially over cooked broccoli

Unless your eating hash brownies you’re good.

My sympathies, you’re husband is a pillock. I think the onus is on him to provide you with credible sources on a breastfeeding diet.

The general rule with babies is that if there’s something coming out there’s something going in. Seek reassurance from a medically qualified person though because there’s a lot to be gained from someone physically checking your baby.

What you can’t eat whilst breastfeeding is exactly the same as what you couldn’t eat before .

I enjoyed curries, fish, junk food and even the occasional glass of wine or brandy when I breast fed my three daughters. They all grew into beautiful, healthy adults.

Ignore your partner, enjoy your food.

Oh the replies have cheered me up no end!
I have indeed already experienced a poonami 😂 it was quite spectacular in a disgusting kind of way. Husband hasn't been controlling before I think he's being over protective of the baby and a bit paranoid. I shall eat chocolate on the sly (it's not like I eat a kilo each time). He has no medical training. He is a technician at a shopping centre and before that a chef. I think he thinks midwives and doctors get their training from Google.
I'm wondering about the baby's latch now. Can he learn it and then forget how to do it somehow?

Having spoken with allergy consultants (real medical people with lots of real degrees) about this exact issue, I can tell you that it us in fact GOOD for you to include as wide a variety of foods in your diet as possible, unless your baby has a known food allergy.

Tell your DH to stick that in his pipe and smoke it.

Eat it all, ignore your husband and if you are challenged again advise that he kindly grows some functional boobs and obliges the baby or shuts up!
My DH was ridiculous with our first child, he is still ridiculous but I recognise that it comes from a misguided need to try and do his best for us all.
In my experience babies can latch or not, get a heath visitor/ BF advisor to have a look if you’re still concerned. It is likely that as others have mentioned you have got an efficient feeder, they are all different!
I’ve BF 2 and I’m a healthcare professional that’s what I’m basing my advice on.
Congratulations and good luck x

I’ve breastfed 2 babies (one still going strong) and have a medical background. Your DH is talking absolute crap and to be honest I’d be a bit wary of this behaviour too if I’m honest. Please don’t eat what you want ‘on the sly’. You’re setting yourself up for a fair few miserable years if you start doing that.

You can eat and drink anything you like. Some women report that spicy food, some fruits (grapes mainly) and drinks like cola can give the baby tummy trouble but there’s really not much evidence to support this. It’s advised on the main part to moderate your caffeine intake but even that is a bit sketchy and pretty impossible considering you’re a new Mum! I’d get the HV to have a word if your wishes aren’t being supported properly. Like I said, you don’t want a miserable future in stressful times if your DH is going to carry on telling you what to do.

As for the feeding, he would be getting more efficient now and that what it sounds like it is. If he’s feeding, his gaining weight, is alert and has wet nappies (quite normal for a BF baby not to poo for up to a week!) then I wouldn’t worry too much. They change like the wind at that age!

I'd be telling him to knob off whilst eating a massive bar of galaxy.

Don't eat chocolate on the sly he is being ridiculous and that is pandering to his ridiculousness.

I could understand it if he was getting mardy about a bottle of wine or a couple of cans of red bull (even though he would still be wrong in theory) but he's going to look like a right twerp if he starts telling people he's stopping you from eating raw carrot.

Nip this in the bud.

I ate absolutely everything and anything I wanted while I was breastfeeding. Obviously a healthy balanced diet is best for both of you but that DOES include chocolate!

Tell him what the midwife told me - breast milk is made from CIRCULATING BLOOD not directly from stomach contents.
You eat food, gut breaks it down into amino acids, fats, sugars, the same basic blocks no matter if it started as mushy carrot, al dente broccoli, spicy curry or bland rice pudding.

Don't sly eat. He'll think you bleieve he's right and continue to impose his opinion. You'll slip up and it'll blow up into an argument about how you lied.

Tell him you're a grown ass woman and you will not be controlled by him. No matter how well intentioned. You have spoken to a professional and does he think you'd put the baby at harm for a bite of crunchy carrot?

DP slides me chocolate constantly, well up until a couple weeks ago when I cut chocolate to she if the stops baby projectile vomiting.

By 5 weeks DD was feeding for about 7 mins each time up to every hour, sometimes longer. There's the odd longer feed but that's just her doing it for comfort. Now we are down to 4 mins, still every hour or two though, at 14 weeks. I know this because I use an app to record feeding (and poos, not wet nappies anymore but I did at the beginning when I was too tired to remember when asked how many wet ones we had), I like being about to see it and am a nerd so love data.

So we just had a massive poo explosion the type that requires a bath afterwards 😂. Spoke to the midwife and she thinks he's only drinking foremilk not hindmilk because he's being lazy. Fortunately I can pump and he will take a bottle so we're back to combo feeding. Still haven't solved the husband problem though!

LTB for taking your chocolate away.

But in all seriousness, I ate whatever I could get my hands on/DH made for me.

I EBF DS so I was stuck wherever he decided he needed to feed. Poor DS got quite a few splashes of food on his head during that phase but I was ravenous.

I quite often had ham sandwiches with American mustard because I spent 9 months being off ham. A slice of cake. A biscuit or two. Takeaway on occasion. Beans on toast. Mainly sandwiches tbh. OHs culinary skills are a tad limited but I was so bloody grateful. Then as time went on and I was able to negotiate constantly holding DS and doing other things, I was able to make and prep food myself. Salmon and veg... much more healthy options. I also had alcohol because I'd been deprived of that for 9 months.

DS is very tall and growing magnificently. None of my ham sandwiches or takeaways have affected his growth (mentally or physically).

Tell your DH to stop being a controlling sod and leave your food choices be. Eat a whole bar of dairy milk in front of him too, just to drive the point home 🤨

@olderthanyouthink can you tell me the name of the app? My memory is shot to pieces so I'm writing all feeds and nappies down but would be much easier on my phone!

Agree you can eat anything you want (source, actual medical degree and two breastfed babies who survived my diet of chocolate and cake), but disagree with your midwife about the foremilk/ hindmilk thing. That’s been kind of debunked anyway (see La Leche league website/ Kelly Mom for details - but essentially the consistency of the milk is constantly varying throughout a feed, there is no foremilk and hindmilk as separate entities) - BUT even if you take her point that the baby isn’t getting the fattier milk, there’s no guarantee a breast pump will be any more efficient at getting it out. Breast compressions while feeding is the usual suggestion I think.

But - all that aside - while your baby is so little they’re probably just feeding little and often to upregulate your supply. They need to keep doing it so it catches up with their growth. Plus the world is probably starting to make enough sense to them now to be slightly scary, and they’ll want the reassurance of being close to you. Feeding is as much about comfort as it is about hunger.

Anything you like. Except alcohol. If your husband wants to dictate to you what foods you can eat tell him he’s not allowed them either. That should shut him up.

She can have some alcohol, just don't get drunk

The amount of alcohol you’d have to drink for it to get into your milk is huge. You’d be legless on the floor before that happened!

Of course a BF mother can drink alcohol. By the tome you’ve consumed enough for it to affect the baby, you’d be passed out

X-post FlippinNora

You don’t need to restrict anything.

I presume you aren’t planning to get legless drunk, so drinking moderately is fine. Caffeine is only an issue if it makes the baby wakeful/restless (though newborns are like that anyway and cutting caffeine makes no difference so 🤷‍♀️.) I had three coffees a day in the early stages, I could barely function without them.

Your partner sounds a bit controlling. Is this normal behaviour from him?

I don't care about alcohol. It's the random load of crap facts he's coming out with. How he thinks that raw carrots can affect the baby badly I don't know. But then he believes the earth is flat so why am I surprised.....

Well I hope he's wrong about chocolate or I'm in trouble... today I've eaten an entire bag of mini eggs, a caramac and a yorkie bar.