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.

Oh dear, sorry about spelling - baby in my arms...

Also making breastmilk does use calories...but it seems many women compensate for this with a reduction in metabolic rate...so they don't need to ingest any more calories to avoid using up body fat. But then most of us would love to use up that body fat. After all one of the reasons we gain it is to use it for breastfeeding. So you don't need to eat extra at all unless you are very thin to start with, breastfeeding doesn't lower your metabolic rate and you don't want to lose any more weight.

marbeth, there is a good amount of research on maternal nutrition and breastfeeding, none of it saying that a 'balanced diet' is essential for milk production, but a good overview is in an article on this very topic at this website

Mothers in famine or near famine conditions do find it harder to feed their babies. This does not apply to mothers in the UK.

Much of this is common sense. The human race has evolved being able to cope in times of plenty and times of scarcity. Nature lays down fat in pregnancy to allow for this. Nature prioritises the production of milk for the baby, using the 'spare' calories in the fat on the mother's body. Eating well is not a 'bad' thing, and it's good that mothers look after themselves. But they do not need to do this for their milk supply.

So often, a mother who feels she does not have enough milk is told to eat better/eat certain foods/drink more....and not told the most obvious and easy way to increase milk, which is to feed her baby more often.

Shame student health visitors like you are being told so much that's incorrect

Mothers need to remember to eat, some do forget with all the other stuff that's going on. BUT, that is just general good advice given that you have yourself and a baby to take care of. It makes no difference to milk supply.

I had to follow a very low fat diet in late pg and during the first few weeks after ds was born because I had suspected gallstones.

This appeared to have no affect whatsoever on ds who thrived and grew at a lovely rate. The good thing for me was I lost all my pg weight which wasn;t that much anyway, immediately (within a week!).

Unfortunately since then gallstones have been ruled out and I am eating a much more fat again, I've put of half a stone & I really regret it!

Ds continues to thrive but I think I;d better go back to low fat again!

I would have think the woman was crazy and help myself to another chocolate muffin