Annabel Karmel, not content with making weaning sound complicated, has turned her hand to breastfeeding

[hunkermunker]

Words fail me

And yes, there are snippets in there that are true/useful - but HOW you dredge through the stuff that's unnecessary/nice to have but not essential - who knows?!

AK is on This Morning today if anyone is interested. Not sure what she's doing...I assume cooking.

Maybe she's gone to speak to the agony aunt

Ticktok, my only argument was that i thought AK promoting healthy food was a good thing, for mum and better for baby as mum is healthier....

thats it. I dont see anything odd in that. The Third world debate started with someone else, and i was aware of unicef doing work to enable mums to keep bfing past 4-6 months as the rates are poor.. due to several reasons and one quoted was poor nutritional intake... never did i say those with a shit diet cant breastfeed.

My personal experiance of BFing is that my body natural increased my calorie/fluid intake....

Of course it's better if Mum is healthier.
Makes no difference to the breastmilk though.

It's a bad thing as it is misleading, so mothers think they have to eat well to successfully breastfeed.

" my only argument was that i thought AK promoting healthy food was a good thing, for mum and better for baby as mum is healthier.... "

Mum's nutritional health makes no difference to the milk the baby receives (unless mum is actually about to keel over) therefore is not directly better for the baby. It makes no difference to the baby. Saying it does is likely to put people with poor diets off breastfeeding.

In fact, IIRC during periods of maternal dehydration the breastmilk actually changes its proportions to provide more fluid for the baby who will presumably be concurrently exposed to dehydrating conditions. So you don't need to drink or eat any more or differently than you want to anyway.

"In fact, IIRC during periods of maternal dehydration the breastmilk actually changes its proportions to provide more fluid for the baby who will presumably be concurrently exposed to dehydrating conditions. So you don't need to drink or eat any more or differently than you want to anyway. "

hmmm and what do you think happens to the mother if shes dehydrated? and if she doesnt drink more?

can you really not see a link to mum being healthy and well being better for baby? if you keel over from dehydration whos looking after baby? (extreme but happens..) and before you say it, im not saying bfing is responsible soley for dehydration but your right our bodys do everything to ensure babies milk is not affected and its at the cost of the mothers health... that is my point.

Healthy eating is good, im a big fan of the Nice guidelines for improving nutrition in pregnant and bfing mothers and children with low incomes, i think it can only be a good thing.

"Studies have shown that most healthy breastfeeding women maintain an abundant milk supply while taking in 1800-2200 (or more) calories per day. Consuming less than 1500-1800 calories per day (most women should stay at the high end of this range) may put your milk supply at risk, as may a sudden drop in caloric intake. "

Is this not what ive said?

again what i said was most bfing mums find they are hungrier and get thirsty more often.. so your body increases your intake naturally...

"hmmm and what do you think happens to the mother if shes dehydrated? and if she doesnt drink more?"

If a breastfeeding mum is thirsty she should drink a glass of water not twat about making special infused water drinks or whatever it was that AK was touting.

I never mention infused fucking water.

I think tap water does the trick fine.

But she's aiming this at breastfeeding mothers, not mothers in general, which seems to imply that healthy eating is required for breastfeeding.

Sorry Gussy I know you didn't but AK did. On her web site and this thread is about AK. Personally i think AK tries to make things far too complicated so that new mums feel the need to buy her products.

gussy, the (vast?) majority of women in the UK eats well in excess of 2200 calories per day in the UK. that quote really doesn't back up what you are trying to put across.

no one here is saying that we don't want healthier women. we want healthier women despite their age, weight, size, no of (or no) children, breastfeeding or not.

We are saying that linking healthier eating in order to breastfeed successfully is a red herring for all but a few women in the UK out of a cohort of, say for argument, a 1000.

I concur, but i do think if theres a number of women who want to change their diet/lifestyle when pregnant/bfing then we should make the most of it.

What i had said was women need to eat more and drink more, which that quote backs up, i definately didnt eat that many calories pre bfing.. and i think its helpful for women to know that..

arhh sorry crackfox.. im only supporting healthy food not infused water (wtf) or any products... all babies need is hands...

Don't you see how linking breastfeeding with healthy eating in this way could put off women who don't want to change their diets?

no i cant Wasting, theres nothing saying you cant bfed if you dont (change your diet i mean..) so why would i put people off?

Because it says breastfeeding recipes, there is an obvious implication that a special diet is required or at least preferred.

ahhh surely a healthy diet is always preferred?

If you listen to the video link (and get past the bad hair) she does say you can eat what you want....

She may not literally say that you must eat a healthy diet, but it is implied in the same way that covering breastfeeding leaflets in pictures of whole fish and exotic fruit. It's how marketing works.

I dont suppose it would be the same with leaflets covered in pictures of cakes/marsbars/crisps.....

But why have any pictures of food when it has nothing to do with breastfeeding?!

oh dear, poor gussy, don't think you deserved the roasting you got....

but in the end, the advise on the site is not necessarily factual and s at parts misleading....which is not a good thing...however, AK doesn't care about neither, because she wants to make money....

problem with those sites is, that, truely, I doubt woman from lower socio cultural backgrounds, i.e. poorer areas, will probably NOT waste prescious time to look at the website and they certainly will not care much for the content....it will mostly be people that have a pretty good idea anyway...so...if it was a needs based website, it would be completely unnecessary, iykwim...

LOL i have thick skin fair lady, think we shall agree to disagree.

can see your POV.

I am shocked at reading all these posts. Clare Byam Cook is a super star... I was working with a lactation consultant paying a lot of money and getting the worse advice possible as I clearly was not feeding my newborn enough based on the advise i was given. I sadly had to put my child through unnecessary tests. Clare solved the problem immediately which only took her 15 mins when the other consultant was charging a large amount of money per hr and coming every week for 3 to 4 hrs at a time...and advising me to keep seeking medical help. Ridiculous. I praise clare for her advice and can not thank her enough.