Breastfeeding and food!!

[Twinkletwinklelil]

Sorry if this would be better posted elsewhere but I wasn’t sure where

im breastfeeding and the meal sizes we’re having just aren’t cutting it!!
I need ideas for food to fill me up or to top up my meals.

dh is all about hello fresh but I’m still finding the meals too small.
keep filling myself up with chocolate which isn’t ideal lol

send help 😀😅

I used to have two breakfasts when I was breastfeeding!
oat bars, yoghurt, dried fruit all on hand to snack on
and lots of water

how long have you been feeding for? The hunger does equalize IME

It’s been 2.5 weeks but 2 month gap from 22months of it lol

Wow!!
I did find after the first month things settled
toast and peanut butter with a banana and some Ben’s based cereal was always a good one
big piles of salad or veggies with dinner
and plenty of chocolate / biscuits if I wanted

Fermented dairy (cheese and yoghurt) is perfect - great at replacing the nutrients you're using to make the milk, particularly calcium which can get depleted by pregnancy and breastfeeding with long term impacts on your bones. Time to indulge in all your favourite cheeses! I've heard oats are good too but go with what you feel like as I do believe our bodies generally direct us to the things we need nutritionally (unless we're talking highly processed foods which highjack those signals).

Oh and it is probably the last thing on your mind when permanently attached to a small person but good dental hygiene is really important as the nutritional demands of pregnancy and breastfeeding can also affect your teeth.

With newborns I’d have a minimum of two dinners. DH was a trouper and just made meal after meal. Fuck hello fresh portions and go for trays of flapjacks (oats good for milk!), piles of pasta, jackets covered in beans and cheese. Just eat, as much as you like, filled with as much protein and as many nutrients as you can, but eat all of the things.

Chocolate hobnobs really filled in the gaps for me, I'd go through at least a packet a night!

Yeah, I was on 4 meals a day at the start of breastfeeding and pretty much mainlined peanut m&ms...

This reminds me of being on neonatal with DC1. I was starving, went off for yet more testing part way through doing to meal sheet and ended up with…a spoon of cous cous for dinner.

I haven't breastfed for 4 years but I remember the constant hunger. I started eating 4 meals plus snacks in between, in fact I continue to do that now! In south Asian culture they make a nut/seed dish that is high in kcal and fat, it's also extremely nutritious and good for milk production. I used to eat 4-5 heaped spoons of that a day. Make sure you are eating comforting meals, pies, stews, pasta and rice dishes as well as lots of protein at each meal.

Oh that hunger (and thirst) is like nothing else isn't it

I didn't really pay much attention to what I was eating. I just know I ate a lot.

I found oats great for this stage.

And cheese. I ate so much cheese.

Thanks all. Can’t help but wonder how much weight I’m going to put on now either 😅😅
@Littleguggi i have the dish you’re talking about dhabra/pinni. I hate it but shovel a couple spoons of it in my mouth lol

4 meals and snacks - got it! ☺️

You won’t gain. Breastfeeding at this stage is like running a marathon. You need calories for milk production, calories to heal, calories to offset the lack of sleep. Just aim for some of the calories to not be caffeine and cake

I mainlined cake. And pints of water. I actually ended up in maternity triage with DC2 because he fed like a trooper and I got dehydrated because I was constantly trapped under a feeding baby. After that DH started bringing me a pint of water every time he saw me feeding and I'd down it in one.

Toast with nut butter. Smoothies. Cheese. Full fat greek yoghurt. Nuts. All the nutrient-dense foods. Cereal bars and flapjacks are indeed great for hitting the spot. As it happened I'd made an enormous batch of courgette muffins while in very early labour with DC1 and I ended up eating my way through them, one-handed, in the subsequent week. Maybe get someone to send you some of those brownies with beetroot in or something?

Hello Fresh portions are very small. We could never make a full meal just from what they sent, and that was a box for 4, of which we were 2 adults and a primary aged child and a toddler. 😂 And I wasn’t breastfeeding.

You need to bulk them out with extra protein/carbs/veg. Or better yet, ditch them and just cook actual food because it’s easier and cheaper.

@mindutopia i hear you but it’s a way for dh to learn and cook.. I much prefer our own stuff to be honest!

A dietician friend is vegan and I remember she said she had to up her protein intake as she was starving all the time. I know she went for pea milks as one option.

I wish I'd known that as looking back I lost far too much weight.

So up your protein intake - nuts, seeds, peas, beans etc on top of meat eggs and dairy

When my kids were newborns I made batches of oatmeal and raisin cookies (Jane's Patisserie recipe) and just used to inhale them at all times of day and night.

I remember bf twins, I could happily eat a king size mars bar (this was 30+ years ago, not sure if they're even legal now) in between meals, while out pushing a double buggy
it just seemed an efficient way of getting the calories in
I didn't put loads of weight on