Health & Fitness
BlinkingLight1
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Paleo and losing my milk supply!
Breast milk that is 
I'm about to give up. I have been eating strict paleo for almost 3 weeks. I have lost a lot of weight (12 pounds) in that time, but my milk supply is slowly dwindling to nothing. It's so frustrating. I'm not restricting my calorie intake (although I have no idea how many calories I'm eating). I eat when I'm hungry and (mostly) stop when I'm full.
Can anyone help and paleo momma out? I don't want to stop eating paleo!
Re: Paleo and losing my milk supply!
I'm still nursing a 12 month old and I've been Paleo almost her whole life. Ive never had supply problems. Are you eating low-carb?
You should not be restricting carbohydrates or calories. I strictly avoid grains / gluten / wheat but I pretty much eat everything else and as much as I want. I eat a bit of dairy (mainly cheese) as well.
SAHM to two sweet girls, both born at home; Baby #3 in 2013!
I do try to limit my sweet potatoes to 2-3x/week. I eat some fruit, but not a ton. I mostly eat eggs, beef, veggies, chicken, nuts, etc... normal paleo foods. We're not making "treats" with almond flour or eating any honey.
We are dairy free, gluten free, soy free, sugar free.
People keep telling me to make lactation cookies (which involve sugar, milk and oats) or to start eating oatmeal. I don't want to do that, but I also don't want to lose my supply completely. I'm just not sure what's going on with my body. If it was just a few days, I'd assume it was a growth spurt.. but it's been weeks.
It's good to hear you've never had problems though. That gives me some hope.
ETA: When I was eating junk, my supply was fabulous.
SAHM to two sweet girls, both born at home; Baby #3 in 2013!
I never had an issue when I was BFing either. Make sure you're chugging tons of water. Also, eat lots. Eat more than you think you need to if you're mainly eating veggies and meat. You'll be eating a ton throughout the day, but your body needs it. And when you're done chugging water and eating meat/veggies...chug some more and eat some more. Make sure your fat intake is okay too.
2012 Goal: working towards pre-pregnancy speed!
04/15 KI Metric Marathon/16.3 m (2:05:55, 7:43 pace)
05/06 Frederick 13.1 (1:41:09)
11/04 NYCM
Ditto on not limiting carbs (or any macronutrient). I don't know how the carbs/sugars get synthesized or partitioned for breast milk, but breast milk is rather high in sugar. 6 mos is still near peak demand for your LO and milk production is pretty energy intensive so I wouldn't be shy about adding more potatoes, other root veggies and fruits. Maybe swap some fats for carbs to keep your appetite up. You might try nursing LO more frequently (or adding pumping sessions) in conjunction with this.
Besides all of that, you could try taking fenugreek which is an herb and Traditional Medicinals has Mother's Milk Tea to help boost supply.
Thank you so much for all the replies.
I drink over 100oz of water, so I don't think that's the problem.
My CrossFit trainer sent me this link: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/nursing-primal-blueprint-diet/#axzz1oakrajet Here is a little of it if you don't want to read the whole thing. "Even under starvation conditions, the body still produces breastmilk with a
remarkably nutrient dense profile.Now for the carb controversy. When it comes to
low carb diets and breastfeeding, the conventional message sounds very familiar:
back away or risk great peril. There?s little research on this topic, but rest
assured there?s no support for the anti-low carb alarmism. In the absence
of modern confirmation, reason and evolutionary precedent can lend context.
Prehistorical mothers always breastfed, of course, and there?s no reason to
believe their diet was consistently or substantially different than anyone else?s of
their time."
It's so confusing to me why this is happening when really I'm eating the same foods a cavewoman BFing her baby did.
I think I'm going to increase the fruit and vegetables and just see how it affects me. I might have to make some fudge baby bars this weekend. Oh darn. Mmmm..
(http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2009/10/13/make-these-now/)
Elizabeth Grace 11.20.05 Nora June 7.15.08 Beatrix Catherine 9.4.12
Again, I don't think it's the type of foods you are eating that caused the issue - its the weightloss. Cavewomen ate paleo during and before their pregnancies so they likely stayed leaner and their bodies weren't shocked by a diet change and rapid weight loss postpartum (all speculation on my part but it makes sense).
It's like when people say "going low carb made my hair fall out". No...losing a lot of weight quickly caused your body to respond by shedding hair. If other diets (WW, Medifast, etc) caused you to lose weight that quickly, you'd see the same hairloss on those plans as well. Slow the weight loss and you slow or eliminate the body's response (hairloss, milk supply diminishment, etc).
This is the first thing I have read today (and I have read a LOT) that has actually clicked. I'm not sure why I'm having such a hard time comprehending this. Thank you, Mrs.Manners!