Breastfeeding-Working Mom

[JLair]

This is the first time I have ever joined/posted to any forum. It has never really interested me to get into online conversations, but I have found a lack of support/information on breastfeeding and doing the Whole30. I think I have found one woman that blogged about completing a Whole30 and maintaining her milk supply. So here I am, ending Day 4 of my 3rd Whole30. Let me add that I have started many of Whole30’s since my first try/completion, but have only managed to complete it one other time. The last one I started I ended of pregnant (didn’t think we could have children) 9 months before our wedding date! My doctor advised me to quit so that I was not restricting the baby from a “balanced diet” and the stress of removing food. (To this day, I wish I wouldn’t have listened) I ended up going off the rails for my entire pregnancy and maternity leave. I ended up gaining 4o lbs (I do not know how it wasn’t more) I was already 10 lbs over weight when I got pregnant. I have yoyo’d back and forth with healthy life and then binge on everything I want life. I am from New Orleans and work on the French Quarter so temptation is EVERYWHERE. It’s culturally engrained in you to drink with family, friends, co-workers. It’s just what you do. When I am to go grab a drink, and I tell them I’m on the Whole30 you should see the looks I get! People try to talk me out of it, tell me I’m crazy, tell me how they absolutely could not give up drinking for 30 days. Honestly, quitting drinking and eating sugary treats, creamy coffees, and fried food- I have never felt better in my life. Probably the same reason I keep coming back to the reset. I recently started to listen to Melissa Hartwig’s book, Food Freedom, while I make my hour and fifteen minute commute to work. But enough about my back story! My current situation is I want to live a healthy lifestyle and not be emotionally attached to food and alcohol. I want to continue to breastfeed my child and worry about my milk supply tanking as a result. I wonder what other women are experiencing. Am I alone out there ? Anyone else trying our Whole30 while breastfeeding and working full time ? 

[ShannonM816]

Hi, @JLair. I don't have personal experience with breastfeeding, but I know that some of the tips for breastfeeding women include eating four full meals each day (or three full meals and a couple of mini meals if that works better), being sure you don't skimp on fat, and drinking plenty of water.

If you browse through the forum you'll find plenty of past discussions of this topic, and hopefully you'll get responses from other women with practical experience who can tell you more about what worked for them.

[kelseyrae]

Hello!  I just completed another round of my Whole 30 after having a baby on January 12th (I started when my son was 1 month old)!  I'm exclusively breastfeeding and was also really worried about maintaining my milk supply through the 30 days.  I did a lot of reading and also talked to my doctor before starting again because it was really important for me to continue breastfeeding and make sure that the baby was getting the proper nutrition as well as me.  I ended up doing a couple of things that worked for me because I had no drop off at all in my supply through this round.  First, I was drinking a TON of water.  I don't usually track my water intake, but I started make sure i was drinking between 100 and 125 ounces of water daily.  I also started taking a supplement called Fenugreek.  That helped keep my milk supply up with my first child and has helped as well with this child.  But the most important thing I did was listen to my body to make sure I was eating enough food.  Since it was more food than I was used to eating on Whole30 (like way more than the other times I have done it), it definitely took a few days of listening to my body and looking for signals to figure out how much I should be eating to support my milk supply.  I tried to work in some of the "starchier" root vegetables like carrots, turnips and sweet potatoes and they seemed to help.  Your body will tell you when it needs more nutrients to support your supply so just try to listen as best you can.  It was definitely hard committing to the program with a young child, but so worth it.  A ton of my postpartum aches and pains completely went away and the little sleep I have been getting with a new baby has been much more sound and refreshing.  Good luck!