ABSURD level of hunger due to nursing

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i am EBFing my DD. started out as a preemie, now has grown into the chunkiest chubbiest baby ever, very big according to growth charts (without having to adjust for age)

i love nursing, but hate all the side effects of it (pretty much all of the physical side effects of BF for me have been negative, but that's another thread for BP). one big one is that i feel like i literally spend half my day eating. as in, shoving food in my mouth like some sort of animal. i'ts to the point where i'm embarrassed to eat in front of people.

despite spending half the day eating, i feel like the other half of the day, i'm STARVING. i'm with my kids reading books and all i can think of is how i'm starving, when can i eat. i've resorted to putting DS in front of TV just so i can sit down and eat a 2nd (or a 3rd dinner) etc without having to share

so i feel this has gotten to the point of being ABSURD. i mean, really..it's embarrassing how much i have to eat, not to mention extremely inconvenient, and expensive (i go through groceries so fast, it's scary).

DD turns 6 months tomorrow, and her 6mo checkup is the day after. Should i start solids ASAP? should i start supplementing??? would these help much? what else can i do? is there ANYTHING i can do to stop feeling like a ravenous animal? lol

with DS i remember having this problem, but not to such an extent. he was big baby too but not as chunky, and we started solids at exactly 5 mos (he was very very interested in eating solids). By 6 months he was eating a decent amount of various solids, and by 9mos he was going to town with solids and only nursing 3x a day. with DD, she just doesn't appear interested .. plus i initially wanted to wait til she was 7 months (so she would be 6 mos adjusted age, and she would have better head control, could sit up on her own). but i don't know, i feel like i cant go on much longer EBFing her..i am just going bonkers here, spending so much time and effort eating. i seem to have adequate supply (always have), but my DD is just happy to nurse and nurse and nurse and nurse... (she just had a growth spurt recently as well)

ugh, i've give anything not to have to eat so much..i feel like it saps all my time & energy and i have less time to actually play with my kids.

[twowhat?]

I know how this feels! The hunger CONSUMES you (no pun intended). I constantly thought about food. I resented the babies for making me unable to get something to eat (which I think really affected my bonding with them). I posted about food on facebook. It was, literally, all I could think about. For me it was the worst part about BF. Even now, it's a painful memory for me. I also ate my way through tons of food. I thought about how with birds the male spends all day bringing food to the mother and babies and wished I was a bird.

The bad news - for me it was at its worst around 6 months, when the girls were probably taking their largest volumes of breastmilk. It got better around 8-10 months when mine really started getting more interested in solids. I think my kids were late in getting interested in solids. Your DD might be different. I'd follow her cues on starting solids, but I think the answer is that you will feel better once she really starts eating significant amounts of solids.

In the meantime, just eat, eat, and eat when you can and don't be afraid to eat a lot in public!!! You're growing a beautiful healthy baby, after all!

eta (and LOL I originally typed "eat"): If you're going completely bonkers, there's nothing wrong with supplementing as long as you're OK that it technically means you are starting to wean. You do whatever you have to do to stay sane.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

I thought about how with birds the male spends all day bringing food to the mother and babies and wished I was a bird.

LOLOL, thanks for this, that cracked me up. wouldn't that be the life. but to my DH's credit, he often DOES bring me food (he goes grocery shopping at night after the kids are in bed, he sometimes fixes me a sandwich etc). but even still, it ain't enough.

DH keep encouraging me to supplement so i won't be so hungry, but i'm hesitant bc i don't know how much it will really help. Plus, we cloth diaper and i would hate having to deal with TWO non-EBF poopy dipes (i love how i can just toss DD's dipes in the pail and then directly into the washer). though i guess with introducing solids there's no avoiding that anyway..

and i do think that right now at 6mos is the absolute worst of it..isn't that when the baby is drinking 40 oz a day or something nuts like that. must be, i don't remember the hunger ever being this bad. even DH started commenting on my eating habits. this says a lot, given that prior to ever being pregnant i ate like a bird (barely anything, and DH was always the gluttonous one who was eating left and right). Now the tables have totally turned. Sometimes my DH actually goes without dinner sometimes so there's enough food for me. It's crazy.

the strange thing is, i don't get why not many other women who BF seem to have this issue. i never read much about this (extreme hunger) in breastfeeding books or online articles. most say stuff like "expect to take in an extra 300 calories per day" or something like that. uh, 300 calories, my a$$. if that was a case, i'd just eat normally plus eat a big protein bar every day and be done with it. but this is something on an entirely different level. as in, "expect to eat like a sumo wrestler." lol. i dunno, maybe my dd just likes to eat?

[twowhat?]

breastfeeding books or online articles. most say stuff like "expect to take in an extra 300 calories per day" or something like that. uh, 300 calories, my a$$. if that was a case, i'd just eat normally plus eat a big protein bar every day and be done with it. but this is something on an entirely different level. as in, "expect to eat like a sumo wrestler." lol. i dunno, maybe my dd just likes to eat?

The Barbara Luke book states a MUCH higher calorie number for nursing moms. WAY higher. I don't remember what it is for a singleton baby but I remember being surprised when I read it.

Think of it this way - you are adding more ounces to your baby now than you did when she was in utero. So it makes sense that you're way more hungry now than you ever were when pregnant. Plus since she was a preemie, catch-up growth can be really fast so you're probably dealing not only with just growth, but also RATE of growth. No wonder you're so hungry.

And my DH would go without dinner too so that I'd have enough to eat I really feel your pain. It is SO FRUSTRATING to be THAT hungry all the time and to have thoughts of needing food consume you to the point where you feel like it's interfering with caring for your children. It'll get better!!! That 6-month mark really is the worst. It's just no fun to feel like you're never getting enough to eat, to have that desperate level of hunger!

[chottumommy]

I used to eat ravenously for my first one but somehow this time around I don't eat so much even though I have more milk (I freeze atleast 4 oz everyday). Both my kids were in the 70% percentile in the first few months but I don't think they ever drank 40oz of breastmilk. 30 might be max.

I do drink tons of water, at least 2 big glasses of water everytime I feed and some in between feedings. That helps a lot with hunger. No juice and only 2 glasses of milk a day. . And I have lots of protein. I'm a vegetarian but I eat a bowl full of dahl/beans/legumes at every meal and lots of nuts in between. I feel that has helped me curb down the hunger.

And somehow I feel less hungry when I'm doing something physically vs sitting and browsing or reading. But I agree, nobody mentions about the hunger. Luckily even with all the extra eating I never gained weight and was always down to my pre-pregnancy weight by 3 weeks postpartum.

[BabyBearsMom]

Have you tried doing some sort of filling protein drink between meals and ensuring that you are getting good fats and proteins at each meal? I would eat a lot of peanut butter and cheese etc. when I was nursing. Also between meals, I had a protein filled snack and between meals and snacks I would drink a shake like Ensure or the like.

[Serepta]

I completely can relate. I feel like I just can't keep up with eating in between feedings, and I'm starving all of the time. In the beginning I was drinking high protein shakes which helped, but now due to DD's allergic collitis I'm dairy and soy free, and consuming enough calories has become even more difficult. I do find that drinking a lot of water each day helps. Also eating high protein foods, like nuts seems to help me feel less ravenous. One of my coworkers told me she remembers feeling "emaciated" while nursing... I guess we're not alone!

[pb&j]

I was that way with DS. He was very big. I was starving. STARVING. All.the.time. But just remember, this too shall pass. In a couple of months he will be eating more solids and you will not be his only source of calories. 6 months is basically the peak of the baby's caloric drain on you. Yes, start solids soon. I'd do that before I'd supplement.

I tried to drink a LOT of water, eat protein, and enjoyed my desserts. But yeah, I was really burnt out on eating and being hungry. I did enjoy being super skinny for a few months, though.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

thx for the suggestions. i used to drink Atkins shakes for the protein (they have more than others), maybe i should start that up again. i'm not a fan of eating so much dairy though. i do already eat lots of cheese (babybel, string cheese) and Greek yogurt (more protein than regular yogurt). i think im a lactose intolerant but i can tolerate cheeses and yogurt since they don't have much lactose. i think most Ensure shakes are milk-based t hough...

and as for being skinny or losing weight, i wish...that is certainly not the case here. As if this hunger wasn't cruel enough, breastfeeding makes me GAIN weight. As in, i have the baby, lose the 8 lbs that was the baby etc, and then zero weight loss despite being a milk factory. i still look like i am 7 months pregnant and am still in maternity clothes. i tried and tried and tried to reduce how much i eat (to eat like a normal human being, like i used to ), but i get pretty severe headaches if i don't eat a significant amount every 1.5-2 hours. also, sometimes my stomach literally growls so loud it wakes up my sleeping DD! so, it's a lose-lose situation, at least for me! i do hope BFing pays off for my DC somehow, LOL. i guess the one good thing is BFing saved time not having to prepare bottles and clean them. other than that, i think BFing cost me much more money than it saved..seriously, the amount of extra food and extra supplements i have to eat (protein bars, shakes, etc) is starting to really add up. oh and plus the cost of keeping my house at 74 degrees all summer, thanks to constant hot flashes.

i really do love the *act* of nursing my DD (the closeness, the bonding, etc), but that's about it. it makes me sad bc despite that, for all the other reasons i mentioned i can't wait until she is weaned

[jennilynn]

My DH started calling me "big mama" while I was breastfeeding because of the obscene amounts of food I can eat now. Keep it up, you are doing awesome! Yes, eat lots of protein and drink water. I also tried to make sure I added a lot of healthy fats to my diet, like avocados (in smoothies, chopped on nachos, as guacamole), nuts and coconut milk.