Could my diet be impacting my milk supply?

[SwivelHips]

4wks in and really struggling now. DS is only content after the first early morning feed, and the night feeds. Mid Morning onwards DS gets very grumpy, arching his back and pulling off (taking my poor nipple with him). He rarely sleeps in the day, and when he eventually does fall over its for an hour tops. He cat naps rather than going down for a deep sleep. We can sometimes get 2 hours at night but not often. I'm thinking he's hungry?

I do read all the threads on here so I know take to bed, skin to skin and feed constantly and I have been doing this, but at what point would this make a difference?

Is it possible that a healthy diet could be impacting my milk supply? I'm not dieting I'm just eating what I ate pre pregnancy, and some extra snacks when I'm hungry. I dont eat dairy really as went off in in pregnancy....typical day would be -
2 slice wholemeal jam toast
snack either apple/some fruit loaf
Soup (usually veg) or roll and sausage with boiled egg
snack fruit loaf or go ahead biscuit
Pork casserole with either brown rice or sweet potato and veg
snack 2 flap jacks
cups of black tea, fruit juice.

I'm not hungry, but am I eating enough, or do I need to add more high fat foods to increase milk supply?

I will get in touch with my BF councillor on MOnday, but Monday is a longggg way off at this point.

Any advice to keep me motivated greatly appreciated.

Sorry got to dash but the answer is NO!!!!

You can search archives for loads on this :)

bugger, that would have been easy to rectify and enjoyable at same time. ill have a look at aechives thankls

Your diet sounds fantastic! I wish my post pregnancy diet was more like that and less full of chocolate and cake.

I wonder if it's something other then milk.

Would a sling help? Something soft like a Close/ Moby/ Kari-me. That way baby is held upright tummy to tummy nice and close to you.

Also I've heard good things about cranial osteopaths.

For what it's worth DS didn't have long naps. Just lots of mini ones. I tended to extend his mini naps by getting into bed with him and feeding him lying down when I was feeling very tired.

Funnily enough hazchem, we've just arisen from a 2hr nap/feed together in bed. Can't believe I slept that long.
Yes I have a mobi wrap, I'm still getting used to it. Only problem is it takes me that long to get it on DS is hysterical by the time I'm ready. I am trying everything!!
Cranial osteopathy I did mention to DH and he was like blimey now what are you suggesting. I haven't ruled it out, just haven't had the time to look into it properly.
Maybe with chocolate and cake I'd be less blinking miserable .
Just found a wispa in DH's bag so i'm about to have that with a nice cuppa...

How was the wispa? :)

Sorry you're feeling miserable - just wanted to offer a bit of moral support really.

DD2 was a bugger from birth till about 13 weeks with tummy gripes and wind...oh, the drama! No reflux or intolerances or anything, just one of those babies who really struggled with it. She was also into the back arching and nipple torture you've described - and sometimes still does it now at just over 4 months. Very annoying.

I started pausing feeds to do a bit of gentle tummy massage and leg cycling, which seemed to help, but the main thing was really just time as her gut matured. Generally she now feeds brilliantly.

Both my girls are also, sadly, cat nappers - day and night. I dream of the day when they're teenagers and I can seek revenge on a Saturday morning :)

Cat naps, sleeps lasting an hour, and occasionally two, are within normal for a baby of 4 weeks, but it may be that attention to a deeper latch may help him be more contented....it's not the sleep pattern that is concerning, so much as the way he's sometimes not very happy :( Hope your bfc can help soon.

Nothing coherent to add re bfing (I also have a 4 week old so coherent isn't my strong point) but when he arches his back, are you using your little finger to break the seal and save your nipple?

The other thing that could help is propping him up a bit in his crib or basket with a folded blanket under the top end of his mattress. It worked for DD in the evenings, when she gets a bit cranky.

Good luck!

Thanks all. I know the right latch isn't right as its bloody painful, I think we've gotten into bad habits so I'll ask the bf team to come out and see us before I meltdown. Although in saying that last night he was pretty angelic until 5am when the wind pains started.
I do try and break the latch with him when it starts, but usually it happens so quickly I dont have time, combined with jaws like a rotweiller

Off to feed....:)

If it hurts its not good. With ds I was bringing my nipple to him rather than letting him get a proper mouthful so he wasn't draining the breast proper so I started to get deep breast pain, probably would have led to mastitis. Went to a lot of bf support and took him off if it still hurt after a few seconds. Practice pratice practice and we got there.

He was still a fussy baby who threw himself about and screamed. Some of them are just not angelic smiley content babies. But if it hurts don't suffer, the first painfree feed was amazing and gave me hope I could do it.

oh and put the wrap on first thing and just wear it all day so you can pop him in and out, that is the beauty of a wrap sling. Yes you do get odd looks when you run in to the supermarket wearing it while dh stays in the car with the baby.

Ima, I really sweat when I wear the wrap though and after I've taken him out it looks really dishevelled (sorry no longer can spell, string a sentence blah de blah) and I feel the need to fix it all again. If I ever get out the house there's a sling meet I could go to...just need to get the feeding issues resolved first.
No problem with the left nipple, I doubt if I'd pain in both i would have carried on. thankfully I know how it should feel if all is good.
:)