Advice on how much I should be eating while bf-ing

[Bellini28]

I'm asking as I am back to pre pg weight after a month and have reverted to old habits of skipping meals and generally forgetting to eat. Whilst my diet is normally healthy I am not a huge eater. I am aware that I need to keep up a good, consistent intake of food in order to properly feed my baby. My question is how much and could this affect my supply?

Bloody hell, breast feeding makes me ravenous! I would keel over if I skipped meals!

I've lived on a lot of chocolate digestives and jars of Nutella since dd was born 8 months ago and I have neither lost nor gained weight. (Lost weight during pregnancy so am less concerned about what I eat atm.)

My understanding is you need to eat 500 calories extra per day.

A friend of mines milk supply reduced because she didn't eat/drink enough, it's v important.

What you eat has no effect on the volume of milk you produce unless you are under severe starvation conditions - which as you live in the western world you will not be. All diet can do is affect the types of fats found in your milk. Just eat and drink to hunger / thirst and you will be fine.

What you consume has to effect on your milk supply it is a big myth. It does burn 500 calories a day on average but that doesn't mean you need to eat in order to keep your supply up. Women in famine struck areas of the world are able to carry on breastfeeding even when they are starving to death (please don't starve yourself to death).

Eat to your appetite but keep an eye on your own health - if you are losing too much weight then you need to start eating more.

What you eat doesn't have any bearing on quantity of breastmilk. Your baby regulates your supply. But you really need to be eating regularly, even if its very little but more often, not skipping meals. Your blood sugar needs to be stable to make sure you have the energy to look after your new baby. Feeling faint, tired and cold if you're underweight isn't much fun when youve already got the stresses of being a new mum.

Eat to hunger. And yes, the idea of skipping meals when breastfeeding brings me out in a cold sweat. I am constantly ravenous despite having dropped to 8lb below my pre-pregnancy weight.

I eat three good meals a day plus snacks mid morning, afternoon and evening. Probably 2500 calories. And my baby is well into weaning. It was probably 3000 calories during a growth spurt in the early months.

You will be knackered anyway, please don't add feeling faint with hunger to that.

What everyone else said - your supply and milk will be fine unless you are actually about to keel over from starvation, the main reason you need to eat enough is to make sure you get all the nutrition you need to keep going as you're burning extra calories.

I don't think it affects supply much - I've had the sum total of 2 cups of tea and a litre of water in the last 24 hours (baby very fussy today and was on my own dealing with other dc's, school, various Xmas errands and no time or chance for food yet) and still had full boobs etc.
obviously once she is in bed I will eat my own body weight in food!!

Yep - don't worry your supply will be fine. Of course best to eat well for YOU! You'll feel much more awake and be better able to deal with your baby and/or toddler's antics if you're well nourished.

I have similar problems with skipping meals but fed DS for four years with no problems at all including a very long time where he barely ate any solid food. If you're anything like me it's no good telling you to eat more because the problem is forgetting. I found the best thing is to buy in lots of food which is really tempting and yummy so that you want to eat it and look forward to lunchtime/breakfast/dinner etc. If you're low on budget check out A Girl Called Jack, her blog is really good and has lots of interesting meal and snack ideas for very little money.