losing too much weight while breastfeeding

[simplyeli]

Hi all,

  I am breastfeeding my third baby and have always lost my baby weight within two weeks after giving birth.  My dd and ds are 21 months apart so I didn't have a lot of time to pack on more pounds.  I have been doing elimination diets with dd (12 mths)  for her eczema and I am rapidly losing weight.  She goes in for allergy testing in a couple weeks. 

  Looking for ideas on how to pack on some pounds without dairy/soy and possibly wheat and or eggs.  Any ideas on protien and calories?  We do eat meat, but do not have good access to organic  meats so I haven't been eating as much.

I really want to continue nursing! 

[sarafi]

Peanut butter, coconut oil...

No idea how bad her eczema is, but I do know that allergy testing (scratch tests I mean) are really hard to do for infants. Both painfully/emotionally hard and also tons-of-false-negatives hard.

Maybe they are taking blood to test specifically and maybe that would be more accurate. I would think a pb & coconut oil & frozen fruit smoothly a few times a day could help the poundage and sounds delish to me :-) Good luck

Avocados, nuts, lamb (organic if you can get it, but it's really fatty).

We have a ton of this in my family, neither I nor my kids can eat many forms of dairy. My sister has the same problem as you (with allergies and Mama tininess), but she really just doesn't like to eat fatty foods and will be going to formula for her FTT fourth month old. This is her second, and for whatever reason she just can't eat fatty food in enough quantity to make milk. For the record my second child was also FTT (failure to thrive) from 3-9 months due to undiagnosed allergies and we did the scratch tests.

I get the "only organic" idea, but right now you are trying to figure out stuff you can gain/maintain your weight on and make milk so baby does the same. Figure out what food sources work first, and then get the organic varieties when possible!

[foreverinbluejeans]

I have a grandson with lots of food allergies and I have read that the skin tests are more accurate than the blood tests.

When I was breastfeeding I had trouble keeping my weight up. I am 5'2" and often fell below 100 pounds. I look at pictures and I look like I had an eating disorder. I ate a lot and tried to eat extra calories but that was just the way I was. After my 3rd and final child weaned I started gaining about 10 pounds a year and became obese. I'm now in my 50's and over the last 2 years I have lost 50 pounds and still need to loose more. The moral of my story is that even if you are underweight while breastfeeding it is temporary and won't have long term consequences. I was able to gain fine during pregnancy even the pregnancy I breastfed through.

[simplyeli]

So, I took her in for a skin prick test. She was a champ, didn't even flinch.  The test prick didn't swell up as intended so the negative results could be false. I am opting out of the blood test.  I have stopped dropping weight and have gained three pounds...woohoo.  Toast with butter, nut's, avocado juice and protien powder in my smoothies. Oh, and I've been baking more.

I bought some lotion for her from the company called Arbonne.  They say it clears up eczema and is mostly plant based and free of parabans. I'll let you know how it works.  Thanks for the advice! 

[jewel1288]

Yay, so glad you're gaining. Coconut oil is also a great fat to consume, both for yourself and your nursling to receive through your milk. Take 2-3 TBS a day should be helpful, in addition to the other healthy fats you're eating. 

Regarding your LOs eczema, what kind of detergents are you using? are there pets in the home? what kind of fabrics and environment do you live in? The allergy may be caused by something external, like the detergent, chemicals on fabric (if it's not organic cotton, linen, or wool) or even flame retardents naturally found in A LOT of baby products. Or cleaning products could also be the culprit. Just some things to consider. :)

GL