Calories needed for breastfeeding and how to get them?

[seasidemama]

After reading and being told all manner of things about how many calories I need to exclusively breastfeed I'm now just confused and thought I'd get more sense here!

Once I've worked out how many I do actually need could someone please make suggestions as to how I can get them? I'm not a "hungry" person and would, if left to my own devices, eat some fruit and a bowl of muesli in a day and not be fussed. What I eat is very healthy - I just don't seem to get hungry. I don't want to resort to eating chocolate in order to get the calories I need - but likewise I'm feeling really guilty that I'm going to be producing useless milk if I haven't eaten enough.

Help?

I wouldn't worry too much. Your body will continue to produce milk unless you are seriously under-eating
Your milk will never be useless
But I would suggest eating protein every day, for your own sake...

How many more calories do we need? I thought it was about 200 a day, so not much really. Bowl of museli sounds spot on!! Make sure you drink lots too, I had forgotten that this is thirsty work!!

Drink lots and try to eat regularly. You will probably find you are starving - I was! It sounds hippy but let your body guide you! x

Doesn't make any difference to your milk tbh. Only thing that you will feel more tired if you don't eat properly and may find it harder to cope.

Breastfeeding makes you hunger for the higher calorie foods (in my experience, anyway). I doubt if you will need to force yourself to eat.

Anyway, if you don't feel like eating extra, don't. And watch the baby weight melt away.

Your post-pregnancy weight, I meant. Not the baby's weight.

Full fat dairy products
Jacket potatoes
Beans on toast
Scrambled egg on toast
Digestives
Flapjacks
Nuts & seeds
pasta & sauce

You don't have to go on a food eating bender, especially as it seems you don't eat much anyway.

Your milk supply shouldn't be affected, however I am sure I read an article advising that if you are not taking in enough calories, the body starts using up your body fat to help produce the milk. When this happens toxins held within your body are passed into the milk. But before you panic about this, please research as I wouldn't want to pass on wrong information.

Good luck with the bf'ing xx

Message withdrawn

cake

Thank you.

DD is gaining weight well so I guess my body is managing okay. I was just getting a bit fretty. Going to stick with the muesli and fruit then I think.

Really enjoying breastfeeding - our bodies are really quite remarkable! Thank God for MN though - I'd be a neurotic disaster zone without it to field all my bizarre queries!

LOL @ pelafina - you're very welcome to it; just don't take my bananas!!

Hi Seasidemamma. I don't know if you are familiar with Kellymom.com. It is a fantastic source of information for all things breastfeeding related. This is what it says about calorie intake here in a section about breastfeeding myths.

So really, for the majority of mothers, you just need to eat when you are hungry and drink when you are thirsty. Nice and simple.

Oooh good. That sounds like the sort of thing even I can remember - not even a need for a note on the fridge!

Damn it. Meant to say thanks for the link too!

Hey Seasidemama!

I think I've read tiktok (bf guru & goddess) post on this subject before. Mothers' bodies are made to produce milk through famines and food shortages, putting the baby's needs first, so although eating well will make you feel better, it shouldn't affect the quality of your milk. (unless you are sverely malnourished)

However that has never stopped me from ensuring others are informed that the only important foodstuff required for a nursing mother is of course...

cake.

Well - judging by the size of my hips, severely malnourished I am not!

It's true (the Kellymom link). I BF'd DS fine for about a month whilst I was on a VLCD (very low calorie diet). I was only on 500 calories a day. Not recommended for prolonged periods (I stopped when my expressed milk started to look a bit greenish - what's THAT all about???) but my GP said it would be fine, and I'd know about it from DS if he wasn't getting what he needed

Wow Sycamoretree - were you not just knackered on that?

500 cals a day!!!!

OMG!

when does anyone have time to eat??

The first 5 days were HELL, but then your body just settles into the groove, and you honestly don't feel hungry, just the kind of cravings you had before that got you overweight in the first place! I wasn't tired, I actually had MORE energy, especially as the weight fell away. I had fed DS for 3 months, but I knew I HAD to start losing weight at that point, or else face a lifetime of being overweight. I can't explain it - I just knew the time was right. So I went on a diet that your GP has to sign you on to, and you get you BP checked regularly. I think I had so much fat stores to draw on it didn't make a blind bit of difference to my milk supply! Still, the greenish milk freaked me out and I stopped....wish I hadn't really, but I wasn't in to MN at the time, so couldn't post for reassurance. I've been on the diet 10 weeks now and have lost 2 1/2 stone!

Bloody well done!

LOL