I'm losing weight- breastmilk ?

[kittykorat]

I have been "eating healthy" not counting calories, but consciously eating more fruits and veggies, and not eating junk.
I've also started to do exercise videos about 4x/week. (new years resolution)
I have lost 5lbs.

Anyone notice a difference in their milk when trying to lose weight?

I pump milk for when I am at work..
It used to have a nice fat layer at the top.. now it's just a little line of fat.. like it went from cream to 1% milk.
Also- I went from pumping 5-6oz during a 4 hour shift to pumping about 3-4oz.

Last night she drank 7oz. while I was at work and was hungry when I got home).

I do not have a huge freezer stock... so this could be an issue.

Do you think the diet is causing this? What can I do to boost my milk?

[woodchick]

Are you making sure to drink more water to make up for what you're loosing through sweat?

[Llyra]

I wouldn't go immediately blaming the diet, as long as you're still eating a reasonable number of calories, including protein and some healthy fats. It is fairly common for pumping mamas to see a decrease in output after a few months.

You hear this a lot from mamas whose babies are about four months old, that suddenly they're pumping less. It happened to me with all my kids, especially with DD, who I was exclusively pumping for. A few ideas: sometimes the soft parts of the pump wear out, and you're not getting as good a seal anymore, and the parts need replacing. Sometimes baby is nursing less when you're actually with baby, and the pump isn't making up the difference, leading to an overall dip in supply. Encouraging baby to nurse more often when you're home, and encouraging your caregiver not to overfeed baby when you're away, can often solve this problem. A lot of times this happens when you switch baby to a faster-flowing bottle nipple. Suddenly baby is taking much more during the day, and wants less during the night.

Are you sleeping with baby at night? Lots of night nursing can really boost your overall supply, and that's easier to do if you're cosleeping. When you pump, are you leaving the pump on for awhile after the milk stops flowing? Often after awhile, you can elicit another letdown of milk, which gets you more milk, and it'll be the richer, fattier milk that come with later letdowns. Even if you don't get another letdown, leaving the pump on will send the message to your breasts that you need more milk. And finally, if you can manage to add another pumping session into your day, that can sometimes make all the difference.

Stress and worry about whether you'll pump enough can often inhibit letdown, and so can overall fatigue. Try not to watch the ounce lines! Watch your hydration, too, of course, and don't eat so little that you start to feel drained and listless.

I wouldn't worry about the amount of fat you can see. That's not a really reliable assessment of the quality of your milk, and anyway has a lot less to do with your diet than you'd think. Studies have shown that a mama has to be pretty malnourished before she'll stop making a good quality and quantity of milk. Milk is made at the mother's nutritional expense-- meaning baby will get what baby needs, even if it means your own body goes without. The amount of fat will very depending on how long its been since you're nursing or pumped last, how many letdowns you've had during a pumping session, how long the milk has sat and thus how much fat has settled out, etc., and worrying about it will likely only drive you crazy. Your body knows how to make the milk just exactly the right way.

[kittykorat]

Llyra and woodchick- Thanks for the advice. I will definetely up my water.

Llyra- I work nights 5-9pm, and usually 8-5 saturday or sunday. We do co-sleep, and she still nurses a couple times a night.
I pump during my 15 min breaks- so once during a 4 hr shift, and twice during an 8 hr shift.

I bought a lansinoh hand pump yesterday.
I will pump during her nap to get extra.

I'm definetely not malnourished... Getting 3 meals a day. At least 1400 cal day.. I don't measure, but I put what I eat into sparkpeople ton get a rough idea.

[Bea]

1400 calories a day sounds like a very low intake for a breast feeding mom. If you take the commonly touted rule of thumb of 500 calories a day for milk production, that only leaves 900 for 'you'.

I don't think you're eating enough. You body 'may' be reacting in a survival/starvation mode by reducing milk production.

While I realise everyone is different and some women keep their extra pregnancy weight through out breast feeding, others lose very easily. I was eating 4000 calories a day to try and maintain my weight at a pathetic 114 lbs when my son was your daughters age (I'm 5' 7", all thyroid tests normal BTW).

Maybe try an experiement? Return to your usual diet and see if your milk production changes. That's the only sure way to know if it's your dietary intake that's impacting supply.

[Llyra]

I have to say I agree, despite what I said earlier. 1400 calories is very low-- a lot lower than I'd thought you meant. Why not try adding a few hundred calories, and see what happens?

[jecombs]

ITA with pp. 1400 calories is NOT enough. BF takes an extra 300-500 calories, beyond what you would need to just maintain your weight. I'm also concerned that your body is sacrificing BM so that you won't lose too much weight. Try adding in some extra (healthy) calories, like nuts, avocado, peanut butter, etc.

[kittykorat]

I think I am eating way more than 1400, but that is the minimum cal/day on sparkpeople...
but I am not measuring, just punching the foods into the spark people nutrition guide...
and I do occassionally sneak a cookie or cracker and don't write it down., and I don't punch in stuff like mayo, or dressing, 'cause I figure the BFing takes care of the "extra" calories anyway..
I'm 5'2" and 183, so I'm not skinny by any means...

Today I splurged for lunch. Got a steak and cheese sub and onion rings. Not the best meal for me, but so yummy!

[Zevy]

Sparkpeople isn't meant for breastfeeding moms. Babyfit is their companion site for pregnant/breastfeeding moms. Check it out.

[cristeen]

If your expressed milk is low in fat, then there are one of two things going on most likely - either you are not pumping long enough to get hind milk, or your dietary fat has dropped. From what you're saying I'd guess the latter. I'd make a concerted effort to increase the good fats in your diet (butter, olive oil, coconut oil, eggs, etc.). I know when my MW recommended that to me, I saw a difference in the fat layer on my milk within about 2 days.

But the low fat would explain why she was still hungry - fat triggers satiation.