Brewer Diet

[icy02]

I am following Dr. Brewer's Diet and eating easily 100g of Protein a day. My question is does this diet produce big babies? I was only 5lbs 2oz full term and really am scared to have a 8lb baby as I'm not very big. I am very careful with my sugar and carb intake. If you followed this diet or any high protein diet, how big was your baby?

[summerforever1977]

I was really, really good at following the Brewer diet with my last pregnancy. I even tracked my required intake of protein, greens, oranges, potatoes, dairy, etc. on a daily basis. I had a 6.5lb baby so it definately does not make you have a BIG baby; I did have a great, healthy pregnancy though.

[dachshund mom]

I followed it exactly and had an 8lb baby, but I'm tall and she was a week late. It's sugar that makes big babies. Agree with PP, had a excellent, healthy pregnancy and never had a bit of constipation, indigestion, heartburn, high bp or any of that.

[Dena]

I have followed the Brewer diet with all my pgs. I think it gives you healthy babies, and greatly lowers your risk for complications like pre-e, high bp, and pre-term labor.

My first two were about 6.5 lbs, and the twins look destined to be about 5 lbs each. So no big babies here, either. But, my two dds are amazingly healthy. Dd1 overcame severe meconium aspiration at birth with a speed that shocked her doctors, and I credit her prenatal nutrition to this.

[tngirl11]

What it seems to produce is a lean, healthy baby. I followed the diet with my twins, and they were good-sized for being born at 32 weeks. They were very healthy too. I followed it again with my singleton, and although he was heavy at 9lbs 9oz, he was not "big" or chubby. My midwife actually guessed his weight a whole pound too low because he didn't look chunky! The diet totally kept my gestational diabetes in check (although it freaked out the nutritionist that I had to meet with). I also have never had even a hint of constipation or high blood pressure while following the diet. Try not to worry too much about size. Some small women easily pop out larger babies. I was nervous right before I gave birth to my DS because they were telling me he was going to be over 9lbs, and I ended up finding some article online about pygmie (sp?) women who regularly give birth to 8+ lb babies, then go on about their day! It sounds funny, but it definitely made me feel better, and my delivery ended up being really easy despite his size (and I'm not super tall at 5'8 and fairly thin).

[beachlover]

Do you mind if I ask how much weight you all gained, and whether or not you drank the milk that was recommended. If so 2%, skim, whole?

Thanks.

[Honey693]

I followed the Brewer diet as well as I could from 20ish weeks until I delivered at 37. DD was 7lbs, 7oz. I'd gained 26 lbs and when I did drink (the texture freaks me out) it was skim.

[beachlover]

Originally Posted by Honey693

I followed the Brewer diet as well as I could from 20ish weeks until I delivered at 37. DD was 7lbs, 7oz. I'd gained 26 lbs and when I did drink (the texture freaks me out) it was skim.

Thanks. I'm just wondering what to do. In my last two pregnancies I've had high BP issues, and they were the first two pregnancies where I had stopped drinking milk. In my other pregnancies I easily drank 4-5 glasses a day. We gave up drinking it all together because I'd read lots of controversial things about it and some health issues seemed to clear up once we stopped.

I also didn't gain very much weight in those two pregnancies, because I was a bit overweight(maybe 10 lbs) from where I usually am when I started the pregnancy. I tend to gain during nursing, and lose when I wean, and I weaned about half way through those pregnancies, so I think I was sort of losing nursing weight but gaining pregnancy weight which equalled not much of a gain.

I wonder if there is really a calcium supplement out there that can do what the mild may have been doing for my BP, but I really don't think supplements work quite the same way and I really want to avoid issues this time.

[icy02]

Originally Posted by beachlover

Do you mind if I ask how much weight you all gained, and whether or not you drank the milk that was recommended. If so 2%, skim, whole?

Thanks.

I'm 26 weeks and so far gained about 20lbs. I started off rather thin and gained 8lbs in my 1st 8 weeks (wondering if my body just packed on the lbs b/c it needed it.) I did eat high protein since day 1 as it made my morning sickness a lot better. I did not make the 'best' decisions my 1st Tri and ate out a lot and pretty much gave myself what I wanted... Now I am trying to eat healthy and get my weight gain to a more healthy proportion. I will probably gain about 35lbs this pregnancy.... However, I am eating little carbs (most days), hardly any sugar, and lots of protein, fruits and veggies. I do get my 4 servings of dairy in but I don't drink milk everyday. I eat a fair amount of cheese and yogurt. When I do drink milk I drink 1% (it is a lot cheaper than raw whole milk).

[dachshund mom]

I gained 30lbs and was 4lbs over starting weight at my 1 week pp visit. I didn't drink all the milk everyday, but did drink a lot and ate a lot of cheese. 1% here.