Some more questions about breastfeeding!

[Shellywelly1973]

Dd is 6 weeks old EBF. No real problems. I was getting very engorged but that's fine now. In fact my breasts don't really feel different now in the morning from the evening.

I'm eating normally but I'm concerned that might actually be the problem. My appetite was enormous but now it's pretty much normal. I sometimes have fruit for breakfast. Sandwich for lunch. Pasta/ meat/veg or salad for dinner. I drink water. Might grab a cereal bar if im hungry.

Does diet really affect the amount of milk a mother produces?

Is the engorgement & diet linked?

TIA.

I am reading 'the womanly art of breastfeeding' and literally just read the bit where it says around week 6 your milk supply settles down and you will likely not feel as full in your breasts, it also say that this is fine and totally normal and provided baby is happy and filling nappies is getting plenty of milk (think small caveat on nappies is that bf babies can start to poo less or stop altogether if they are having just enough)
Its a very interesting book, written by founder member of la leche league, only 9.99 from amazon!

Follow what your body is telling you! Sounds like your diet is great.

I remember reading about how women who don't have good diets still produce plentiful, nutritious milk -maybe someone else can correct me or link? Anyway sounds like it's going great for you - enjoy it!

Sorry i realise i haven't really answered your question, haven't got onto bit about diet, from what i understand your diet can affect baby e.g too much broccoli can make baby gassy. And i imagine really poor diet may affect milk supply, but equally there are women bf in crisis situations whose babies are kept safe and well because they are bf and i imagine diet is not all that fantastic?

In short, no.
Your body is starting to work out how much you need and so engorgement will become less frequent. You still have a great supply, it's just not all 'there' if you see what I mean?

You might feel hungrier some days than others. Most days I eat pretty normally, but growth spurt days make me put away epic amounts. I am still very thirsty a lot of the time though. Are you losing weigh though? I'm currently below my pre-preg weight and I figure that's down to breastfeeding. Just make sure you've got enough energy! It sounds like all is going well though.

In short, no, your supply is just settling down.

In the early days your supply is very hormone driven. Your body makes masses of milk and stores it ready for use (very oversimplified explanation, obviously). Hence you become engorged.

As your baby gets older, your body and your baby get in sync. Your body learns how much to produce (so you might still find you get engorged if, for example, you miss a feed because you are out and away from your baby) and also production becomes more 'on demand'.

It's all a sign things are going well, unless there are any other problems with feeding.

All those comments about what to eat are mostly old wives tales too. Some women do find that certain foods seem to disagree with their baby (this may be as simple as the baby not liking the affect on the taste of the milk or as extreme as a food allergy). However, all those comments about avoiding broccoli, onions, spicy foods as a standard diet restriction are just myths.