Must i eat fatty sugary food for good milk supply?HELP!

[ellasmum1]

MY HV says i must eat lots of biscuits/puddings/cakes to keep a good milk supply.This has upset me as i want to lose some of the excess pounds from pregnancy.DD is 6 wks old now and has gained weight ok so far.I want to cut out junk food to help me lose some excess weight(Not going on strict diet or anything!).
Anyone know if this will be detrimental to my milk supply??Thanks.

sounds bonkers to me

You don't need to eat anything special, just make sure you do eat enough and rest .

No no no no no no no.

Cut out junk, eat healthily (don't starve yourself - though that won't affect milk it will make you feel knackered). And tell your HV you're having snacks between snacks. I find it good policy to lie to the stupid ones

No! It's like PG - the baby will get first dibs on whatever nutrients are available, so it doesn't matter what you eat and drink from that POV, and stodgy food is neither here nor there as regards milk supply.

if you don't eat enough and get enough rest, it shouldn't affect your milk, just as a new mum you're bound to be feeling knackered so need decent food/rest for your sake rather than for the sake of your milk

Eat whatever you feel like, honey, and don't forget you can have a nice drink too.

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Sounds absolute rubbish. I ate what I always eat (healthy, balanced, mostly veggie diet) and had milk coming out of my ears for 13 months x 2. Take no notice of her, she sounds like she was trained in the dark ages. She'll probably tell you to wean at 12 weeks...

No! Eat good healthy food, with enough protein and fruit and veg, and make sure you drink lots of water. That's all there is to it! Your HV sounds quite barmy. If you keep up the breastfeeding the weight will drop off you, and pile on dd!

Another HV talking b**ocks....who''d have thought it?

Did she really say this?

Is she mad?

Or just ill-informed and a little stupid?

Or maybe all three......

what a load of codswallop

a good healthy diet is what you need not saturated fats and sugars

don't see any more hv's

...but not surprised. When I was doing my HV training we got just two hours of breastfeeding education - most of which was concentrated on the structure of the breast. No wonder some HVs talk such crap.
Just eat a healthy and balanced diet - you don't need to go on a diet as such - just eat plenty of the healthy and restrict the unhealthy and ensure you have a good fluid intake as most of us don't drink enough. And - no - you don't need lots of puddings, cakes and biscuits to ensure a good milk supply - just a nice healthy diet and a baby allowed to feed on demand.

gah!! bad information being given to you. when i was bf'ing, i ate healthy, walked as much as i could and drank 2+ litres of water a day.. and my milk production was excellent. good luck. (& maybe look for a new HV if you can?)

It's unbelievable that any so-called health visitor should be spouting this kind of rubbish. Eat a normal, healthy diet and drink lots of water. Do buy some cakes though, along with a load of rotten tomatoes, and throw them all at your HV next time you see her.

My hv said this to me as well and I'm still overweight. Eat a balanced diet (you'll need more calories but get them from pasta, veg etc.

Also make sure you drink plenty of water

LOL AnnieQ. I'd hate to be an HV that gets on the wrong side of you! Unfortunately I'm not surprised at all to hear an HV has been spouting such spurious crap - par for the course IME (some honourable exceptions obviously Amanda )

Oh you lot are so funny!I've been laughing my head off.Feel so much better thankyou!

The only thing I can thing of is that she was worried you were going to go on a faddy diet -- you shouldn't do anything involving cutting out carbohydrates or that's very low fat or that restricts calories too much, but as you said just eating sensibly and cutting out junk will be fine.

That's a truly strange piece of information. So, how did hunter gatherers manage to breastfeed? If you're living on meat, nuts and berries, where do you get the cake?

Breastmilk is mostly water, you need to drink enough fluids to make the milk, not eat anything in particular.

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Whisper it, but you don't actually need to have a 'balanced diet' or extra fluids in order to breastfeed. Cheap fizzy pop and white bread and jam is fine....you might suffer long term, but the baby and the milk won't. Most women are a bit thirstier when bf - so drink to thirst - and maybe a wee bit hungrier, too - so eat more. Listen to your body (and not HVs like that one!)

I wouldn't worry about losing the weight at this stage.

Maybe your HV was trying to cheer you up?!

Having said that, whenever my HV came round I WAS stuffing my face with cakes.

Hi Titox

Have you any references for articles relating to this.As a student health visitor I constantly hear this in practice that clients need to make sure they eat well for their milk supply.I remember reading this before on another thread and I did locate a research article cant find it now.Next week am doing a session on breastfeeding and it would nice to have the evidence

Thank you

Wow. Whyen my milk was low HV told me to eat high calorie things. I did, didn't sort things out, I thik now I wasn't drinking enough. So don't make the msitake of listenignto hte HVs, I did aqnd ended up in a terrible mess and had to
give up breastfeeding altogether in the end. Tiktok is your lady, or Mears....

Gentle esercise, alot fo water and healthy eatin will have you back in shape in no time. Good luck!