I know you shouldn't diet whilst Bf but a nurse at my surgery today said it's okay

[Helgicita]

I'm feeling so confused. My DC2 is four months old. She's feeding well - totally bf. She was a big baby and is still growing well. I lost some weight after her birth initially but after a few weeks of feeding my appetite increased and I have put quite a lot of weight on. My eating seems out of control. For my dinner each night I have to eat pasta, at least two large bowls of it - i cant manage on anything else, and last thing at night you'll find me stuffing my face with cereal. Sometimes up to 5 weetabix. I go to bed still feeling hungry quite often and if I haven't eaten at least some cereal no matter how tired I am I cant get to sleep.
I'm so depreesed about my eating, there's no enjoyment anymore, it seems like a desperate activity, cramming as much in as possible. And sometimes I feel like I want to vomit it all back, but I cant because I wont make milk/sleep etc .... !
I went to the doctors today and saw the nurse practitioner. I'm so worried about my tummy still being huge (I still look 6 months pregnant) but I also talked about my eating. She said that I need to start doing more exercise. This is true and I will do this. But also that I should cut down on what I am eating and that perhaps I'm not drinking enough fluids, supposedly the receptors for hunger and thirst are close together in the brain and can get confused. I said to her that I cant sleep if I don't eat the amount that I am currently eating and also that DC2 has started waking earlier in the morning on days when I haven't eaten as much the night before, not a problem in itself but surely demonstrating that my milk is of poorer quality. She seemed to think that cutting down on my food would be fine for DC2 and that I would experience a few weeks of discomfort but it would be a totally safe thing to do.
I feel so tempted to start this mainly because i now hate eating so much but I'm so apprehensive about how crap I'm going to feel and how DC2 will be. I already feel crap this evening having only had 1.5 bowls of pasta and a small bowl of muesli.
Sorry this goes on and on!

FWIW, I don't think for a moment that your milk will be affected by cutting down on what you eat. I think you might feel pretty weak and awful, but you sound very unhappy with how things are at the moment, so would you be OK with that?

I bf for almost 2 years, and was starving for most of the time, so can relate to what you are saying (and I still weigh about 7lb more than I did pre pg). But I never felt out of control with my eating, and you sound like you do?

Do you load your food intake into the evenings? If you do (as in manage to be 'good' all day then find you are starving in teh evening) I really think you should get a good breakfast. It made a big difference to me. And the thing about hunger and thirst being hard to tell apart is very true, so try drinking a big glass of water regularly and before all meals, before you make radical changes to your eating!

Take care of yourself

Thankyou Captain. I think in truth I do load my intake in the evenings. But i have a good breakfast ie this morning bran flakes with raisins and brazil nuts, two pieces of toast and cups of tea, lunch cheese on toast (4 pieces)and grapes and apples, a toasted tea cake this afternoon .....
I feel as if I do eat enough especially since I'm not doing any proper exercise except for buggy pushing.

Hi. I read your OP with interest. My DS3 is nearly a year. I won't waffle on with persona details or anything, will stick to what I know!

Slimmung World have a dedicated breastfeeding variant of their diet, and if you're needing to eat pasta then it could be what you're looking for. If cutting down is making you feel bad it might be worth looking at another way. There are SW threads on Mnet and no doubt someone on there will be able to tell you more.

You might see an improvement in your sleep pattern if you get out in the frsh air with the buggy a bit more etc.

But of course, IME, eating "properly" and exercising are difficult when you have a baby (DS3 is nearly 1 and my weight loss campaign is not going well. back on SW tomorrow after failed WW attempt)

Good luck.

Rx

lots of water too of course...

helgicita four months is still post-natal. nine months on-nine months off is fair enough and some of us carried round weight for a little longer.

what you eat and drink won't have any effect on your milk. but you need to give yourself enough energy to carry on. it sounds as though you are eating quite a lot of carbohydrates. some more veg and protein will probably make you feel wildly better.

BF makes you hungry, fact. Your milk quality is unaffected, regardless of your diet, fact.

I think if you made sure you had a big breakfast (porridge and fruit and yoghurt is good) and then make up the extra food you want from fruit and veg throughout the day, you would feel a lot better.

You won't do any harm by cutting back. I wouldn't advise cutting back drastically, quickly though.

advice from someone who, while BFing a 10 month old, has 4 slices of wholemeal toast for breakfast every day (but that's mostly for the sake of my anal fissure, I swear ... TMI sorry!)

BF does make you hungry.

I used to keep biscuits by the side of the bed so I could snack on them after night feeds because I would be starving and couldn;t go back to sleep.

Are you up a lot at night? I think sleep deprivation can make you want to eat more. I find when I am really tired I badly crave carbs.

I would definitely try drinking more fluids and see if it helps. Also, I wonder if you might be low in something - you are obviously eating lots of carbs but are you eating plenty of fresh veg & stuff as well? Do you take any vit / mineral supplements? What about fat / protein?

I suppose what I'm saying is can you try making your meals more nutrient dense? Does that make sense?

Ok I'll stop waffling now

Hi there, I was just like you after DD1 and I got v depressed about my weight after a while. I didn't lose weight at all while bf (starving the whole time etc etc) and even after I'd stopped bf I still remained way bigger than I had been previously. I joined Weight Watchers when DD1 was about a year old (I'd stopped bf) and shifted the weight in no time.

With DD2 I really didn't want to go down the same depressing path about my weight. I had intended to start Weight Watchers when she was about three months old (like slimming world they have a programme for dieting while bf). In the event I started doing WW when DD2 was 6 weeks old and by the time she was 3 months I was back to my pre pg weight. I wasn't even that strict about it I just found that having the structure REALLY helped me to keep on top of it all. This all had no effect whatsoever on my milk supply. DD2, who started life on the 2nd centile, happily rocketed up to the 75th centile during the time I was dieting - provided you don't starve yourself there shouldn't be any problems. I'd highly recommend joining a structured group such as WW or as the pp suggested, Slimming World, as the support an structure really helps.

Forgot to mention, I had to follow a low fat diet for the first 8 weeks of DS' life for medical reasons, and it didn;t affect my milk supply.

Thanks so much all of you. I feel really encouraged to look into WW or SW, drink more and I think I'm going to aim more for quality not quantity from now on.

Hi there. I know this is a little gillian mcpoo, but eating slowly really helps too. You inhale your food when you have a littlen, but now dc2 is 10 months old and I've been back at work a short time, the weight has just started to drop off. I've lost a stone in a month. Half a stone to go and I'm the weight I was before dc1, and the lowest weight ever.

My ds is 21 weeks and I've been doing SW since he was about 10 weeks and have lost 11.5lbs.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight when bfing, I was overweight before I was pg, and am now about 3 stone over my ideal weight. Kellymom advises taking it slow and aim for a weightloss of no more than 1.5lb a week. Slower it comes off, the longer it'll take to go back on!
SW's great as I tend to have mainly green days and so fill up on pasta, rice and jacket spuds.
Lots of Healthy Extras means I can indulge my cravings for lots of cheese too

And did cutting back on food intake affect your baby's sleep? A few weeks agao DC2 was sleeping from 10.30pm feed until around 7.30am. Since i've stopped eating quite so heartily she's waking up around 6am really hungry for her milk. Could be a growth spurt time though, she's 16 weeks.

this is quite a helpful book

I read it a whle back and the science seems sound (she is a proper nutritionist). Has made bugger all difference to my flab though because unfortunately you have to do more than just read it for it to work!

plus weightwatchers also allow you to join while BF if that's any help.

you can lose weight and bf at the same time but you have to do it healthily. so eat loads of fruit and veg and protein.

Nope made no difference to ds's sleep. Has always been a fairly crap sleeper!

It sounds like the nurse (and other posters on here) have given you some good advice. I would also recommend WeightWatchers or Slimming World as both are safe and healthy and have a breastfeeding plan.

Your dieting won't affect your milk quality or supply unless you were overly drastic and virtually starving yourself. A healthy diet, high in fruit and veg and with balanced amounts of protein, fats and carbs will provide all the goodies you need to make plenty of good milk.

Your diet does sound pretty carb-heavy which isn't a problem, but more protein may make you feel more satisfied. When breastfeeding you actually only 'need' 500 more calories a day which is only a couple of slices of bread with spread and jam.

I did get very hungry when breastfeeding but tried to eat healthy stuff rather than the crisps, toast and sausage rolls that I really wanted! The sentence that leaped out of your original post to me was "my eating seems out of control". That's where something like WW or SW can be helpful as it is more structured and the leaders can support you.

Good luck

I eat huge quantities when breastfeeding too and also have been very impatient about weight loss but not enough to stop eating that's for sure . (lost it now one year later...still bfeeding)

What I think is be patient, listen to your body, lots of fluid, some excercise and eat plenty of good food....I got low iron-that always makes me crave sugar which doesn't help one bit.
And don't worry about your milk, it'll be perfect!

Thankyou!!!
I am Mrs Carb to be sure and being tired doesn't help with putting together quality meals.
i will investigate WW and SW for sure! xx

I agree with the good advice you've had about drinking and exercising more. I find that exercise controls my appetite.

Seems to me your diet is a bit wheat heavy. Could you snack on a greater variety of healthy things such as banana, raw carrot, or other fresh/dry fruit or veg? Make a brown rice salad with celery, other salad veg, toasted nuts and seeds and bind it with a dressing like soy sauce, oil and vinegar, and keep it in the fridge. Sometimes a bit of that just hits the spot.

I had a huge appetite too when bf, though not quite as big as yours! Sounds like there's a bit of panic going on, as well as normal healthy appetite. Your baby is lucky to be still getting breastmilk at 4 months; you are doing a great job.

Thankyou Elasticwoman that rice salad idea sounds good. It certainly is a panic type feeling that I get, I need to take control and say to myself I Have eaten enough today! I can stop now.

And top it with fresh chopped parsley - yummmmm.

I am wondering if you are thirsty

I do find that if I don't drink enough, dd2 gets grumpy.

I am bfding a 3 mo atm and I am drinking around 2-3 litres of water a day atm. Quite possibly a bit more actually.

there is that bottomless hunger bfding thing though. Are you SURE you are eating too much? Are you actually hungry? If so, I'd eat, tbh.

Oh also 4 months-still exclusively bf? I found that the bottomless hunger abated around weaning (6-7 months)