If you are grain free AND nursing/or preggo...

[suzukiaustin]

What do you eat in a typical day? Are you underweight, overweight, maintaining a good weight? If you are nursing, how is your supply?

I am feeling a lot better being grain free, but I have this strange notion that I am depriving my baby of something by not eating grains. I think it is because I haven't gained as much weight with this pregnancy as I did with my first. The only things that put weight on me are bread and dairy. I'm grain and dairy free right now, so the weight gain is slow. I eat so much fat that I don't want to eat very much food, so I'm trying to find a solution here.

Perhaps I should post some stats:

27 weeks preggo and I've gained 14 lbs. Started off at 112, now 126 and I'm 5'8". I had gained 25-29 lbs by my 27th week with my first pregnancy.

According to my midwives, the baby is measuring to date, so it's growing. I'm just wanting the extra pounds because I know they are going to melt off when I start nursing.

Thanks for posting your menus and for any advice offered!!!

Oh, this is my menu for the day:

Breakfast was a hardboiled egg (usually two, but didn't want that many today), a cup of kale sauteed in onions and oil, topped with a tahini sauce, a sweet potato with lots of butter (I'm ok with butter, no other dairy though).

Snack was 2 coconut covered dates with a handful of crispy almonds and walnuts. Glass of kombucha and a cup of orange/carrot/lime juice, fresh squeezed.

Lunch was beef and veggie chili with a salad with a few pieces of artichoke and olives. A slice of lemon meringue pie (almond crust, egg/honey/butter filling).

Dinner will be chicken and veggies and potatoes fried in duck fat. Maybe a piece of chocolate, too.

[macly]

I'm not dairy free but practically grain free. I was very slow to gain during my pregnancy starting out at an ideal weight. I lost 6 pounds during the fun morning sickness period and it took until week 20 to get those pounds back. In the end I only gained 20 pounds above pp weight, and those last 5 came on quickly in the last two weeks as water weight. I heard TONS of comments how I needed to be gaining more (co-workers etc.) but my OB was never concerned, nor was I. I had an very healthy 8 pound boy, and a speedy recovery. He is now 4.5 months and I have been back to pp weight since week 3 or 4. I'm surprised with nursing I haven't dropped below it, but I eat a lot! It is obviously an ideal weight for me.

OK, so here are some food ideas and staples that I eat. Throughout pregnancy and now nursing I feel I am constantly eating. Lots of small snacks, etc. Unfortunately a lot of them have dairy but perhaps you can tweak them. Bfst: yogurt with granola, fruit, crustless quiche (make mine with sauted onions, egg, sour cream, bacon sprinkled on top. I'm sure you could ditch the sour cream), fruit, avocado. Snacks: quiche, veggies and homemade hummus (lots of tahini and olive oil in there), veggies and cheeses, green salads with avocado, apples and peanut butter. Lunches are usually leftovers or chicken salad on salad greens (I love chix salad and always have a big batch of it...homemade mayo, almonds, etc. It's quick and yummy). Dinners: lots of soups/chili's (we do a lot of cream/broth soups, but you could do just bone broth soups), chickens breasts/steaks and sauted veggies (my crockpot is always on with dinner inside).

I hope my ideas help in some way. Even though fats fill you up I would keep eating them. Butter, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado... Slipping a little more into each dinner/meal might help. If you are worried, try fitting in an extra small healthy snack a day. You sound like a fit and healthy mama to me!

[sparkletruck]

Hi,
Im not exactly what your looking for but here goes;
I just finished my third pregnancy eating TF and low grains and always sprouted. I gained almost the exact same amount of weight with all three, which was about 20lbs. Babies weighed 6.12 (girl) 8.12 (boy) and 6.10 (girl). I did lose weight when I first started eating low grains 18 mos ago, but then discovered nuts, particularly walnuts. I went on a walnut binge - they give me that same satisfaction as grains but better b/c of the fat I think (I soak and dry them). Anyway, I gained about 10 lbs just eating a lot of walnuts in my diet. Whats more, they are loaded with omega-3's which is soo good for baby's brain development, and continues to be when nursing. Nuts are still heavy in my diet; brazils, cashews, almonds, and walnuts. I have a recipe for raw fudge with CO. almond butter, agave, flax and walnuts. Yum. PM me if you want it. IMHO I think baby gets everything they need without grains.... but then I did eat some so Im not a perfect scientific specimen Oh yeah, milk supply is great...

[gardenmommy]

I was pretty TF with my last pregnancy. I did really well about no grains or sugars (not dairy, though) until about 5 months, at which point we went out of state for 8 weeks (travelling is very hard on a TF diet!). My weight gain was very minimal until I started eating grains and sugars. FWIW, my baby was a full lb. bigger than my others, and his head was a full inch bigger as well. He has a beautiful face, lovely shaped head, and nicely proportioned body. I am making milk like crazy, as well. At 8 months, he has tripled his birth weight, and grown almost 10" (not eating more than about 1 T of food/day, either, his choice).

I am going grain- and sugar-free again starting this next week, and here is what my diet will look like:

Lots of eggs (quiche, scrambled, fried, etc.)
Lots of beef (soups, stews, jerky, etc.)
Some chicken (salad, roasted, baked, soups, etc.)
Plenty of greens (both raw and cooked)
Salads
Raw and cooked veggies
Egg nogs
Lots of low-sugar fruits (berries, grapefruits, lemons, limes, etc.)

I think that I will probably allow sweet potatoes, but no white potatoes. Last time I did this, I lost about 20 lbs. over about a month. I was nursing a 19 month old at the time. I am not sure how it will go this time, but feel sure that my body will lose what it needs.

As long as your foods are nutrient-dense, and you eat plenty of them, your baby will be fine. You don't have to eat grains to have a healthy baby. Just make sure that you eat enough calories in a day (from good foods), and you should be fine.

[Shazer]

I'm nursing an 11 month old who doesn't really eat solids. I am grain, soy, potato and sweet potato, tomato, banana, and dairy free (except for cultured and raw butter), and mostly nut free because I'm not sure if DD reacts to those.

You can eat very well without any of those foods. During pregnancy I ate limited sprouted grains and dairy, but I had to cut out all dairy due to DD's intolerance when she was a month old.

During pregnancy some of my fav. foods were apples with nut butter, eggs in any way, shape, or form, lots of meat, salads galore, veggie soups, salmon and other fish.

Now my diet consists of eggs in the morning, usually a fruit snack or three, meats, salads, squash, fats in everything I can think of (butter, coconut oil, lard, some nut oils and olive oil). I also take cod liver or fish oil supplements and a prenatal that doesn't have any of the ingredients I can't tolerate. I also make a raw egg smoothie usually once per day.

For pregnancy, I started at my ideal weight and didn't have any morning sickness at all. Weight started adding immediately because I bumped up my caloric intake. I gained not quite 40 pounds and a week after birth, I was up about 12 pounds from pre-pregnancy. Now I am below my pre-pregnancy weight by a pound or two. I struggled to be grain free for the first ten months because I was hungry all the time. and was still up five pounds from pre-pregnancy. BUt once I took out the limited grains (only sprouted bread maybe once per day), I just ate a lot more fruit and it seemed to work for me. Within a few weeks, I lost those five pounds.

I wish I would have been grain free during pregnancy as I had been for several years before. I added them in thinking that I needed more carbohydrates, but I should have just increased the fruit consumption then.

[crunchy_mama]

Let's see I did the Brewer diet with #1- lots of dairy and bread. Ended up gaining 55#s, quite miserable toward the end. Also, ended up with a babe with digestive issues. WEnt on many elimination diets. Ended up off dairy and grains strictly for a while and then mostly.

When I got prego I tried to be very strict about no grains. I ended up gaining 35#s that seemed to be really good for my body. I felt great throughout and kept up a much higher level of exercise all the way. Babe was 7#7oz and head 13 in- #1 was 8#10oz and 14 in head- babe #2 was a week later as well.

Now after pregnancy extreme extraneous circumstances totally screwed up my diet and life. the weight was slow to come off. I didn't finish losing the weight until I way kicked up exercising AND cut out grains- I think I officially cut dairy when she was a month or so old. Oh, lost the weight at 8.5 mo.

After some holiday binging I am back in the saddle again with strict grain free and feel great. I did get comments at first in my pregnancy that people thought that my diet must be lacking because I wasn't eating grains. However, no one could name what I was lacking though. It helps me to remember that grains are so new to human eating. Really now I think that they are really toxic and not good for anyone- although some are worse than others and different people tolerate them to varying degrees.

Right now my diet looks like this:
breakfast- smoothie- raw eggs, coconut oil, honey and fruit- just started these raw egg smoothies- before it was a fruit and kale smoothie with fried overeasy eggs.

snacks: lots of nuts, seeds, nutbutters, fruits and different mixtures of that

supper or lunch: lunch is often leftovers; last night I had stuffed bell peppers- 1/2 bell pepper filled with cooked chicken, chopped avocado and salsa- topped with cilantro

curried lentils or honeybaked lentils

roast with veggies

roast chicken w/ veggies

spinach salads

meatloaf (I use fresh ground flax as a binder)

other stuff I cannot think of right now...

I am also trying to eat more raw as well so I have been fumbling along here.

[Shazer]

You also asked about supply . . .

I have a great milk supply. I've worried a bit with losing weight after cutting out grains and starchy foods about losing supply as my boobs have shrunk and don't feel full at all, but DD is gaining weight at a steady pace and refuses most other foods I try to feed her.

[suzukiaustin]

Thank You!!

Thank you all so much for the replies and reassurance! It sounds like everyone has done better during pregnancy and lactation by being grain free...which is what I was hoping. Living in our mainstream world, I get paranoid that I'm missing something by not having oatmeal for breakfast or some whole grain bread with my chicken salad. Thank you for putting my mind at ease!!

I think I am going to try to keep up with this way of eating and make sure that I get lots of nutrient dense foods with every meal. saskiasmom - I discovered walnuts this week, too, and they give me the same full feeling as grains. I wonder why??? Crispy walnuts and dark chocolate are the ultimate dessert!!

It seems to me that grains inhibit one's ability to absorb all the nutrients from other foods. I ate so well today that I told my husband I think I'm on vitamin overload from all of the nutrient dense food. It was a weird feeling, but I'm sure the baby is benefiting. I know I'm benefiting from this extra energy!!

Thanks again!