How does food affect breastmilk?

Wow! My son just had his 2 month check up as well, but he is in the 90% for his weight. He was 8.1 when he was born and is now almost 14lbs. I am also exclusively breastfeeding on demand. With my first son, I didn't have as great of luck. I was exclusively breastfeeding him and I thought he was getting enough to eat because he let me know when he wanted to eat ( which was very often). He ended up getting down to 25% and he looked so skinny. The big difference between this baby and my 1st son is that I am not trying to diet at all. I am just eating like any normal day (which for me is just until I'm full, not stuffed and mostly natural foods). Taking less calories can really make your milk supply less than adequate and you may not realize it. Eating fatty foods doesn't make your milk more fatty, but it does reduce your calorie intake. You should also make sure that your son has a good latch or else he won't be removing the milk well. 1% is crazy for a newborn!!! You definately need to start supplementing or else he's going to starve! I highly recommend you read the book "The breastfeeding mothers guide to making more milk". It really helped me learn how milk is made and how to make a good supply and how to make sure the baby is getting enough to eat. If he isn't gaining well, he's not getting enough to eat, bottom line. The most important thing right now is to build up your supply so your son can build up his weight. Try not to worry about you losing weight right now. I know that can be difficult to do but just think about what's more important.

Your calorie goal looks pretty low though- only 1200? You may want to increase a bit more jsut for a few months. Your body needs the nutrition to heal after pregnancy & birth, as well as still feeding another person. You really are eating for two at this point. IIRC, Kellymom suggests an extra 2-500 calories for nursing mothers.

How does your baby feed? Any unhappy feeding? Clicking or very frequent / distressing feeds? I'd strongly recommend going to see a lactation consultant, jsut to confirm that everything is as it should be. Starting AND ending feeds as required by the baby is important as much of the time as you can manage.

Good luck!

ETA - jsut read back and saw your later post. I'm wondering why you are nursing with shields? Has he been checked for tongue tie? It's REALLY common, around 1:10 babies, and far more common in boys than girls. and annoyingly, REALLY hard to spot unless the LC has had a lot of specialist training. Anterior TT is straightforward usually (short tongue, heart shaped when cries) but posterior TT can look normal but stop the tongue making the wave motion to properly stimulate milk supply & nurse effectively. Pls google symptoms and get some help ASAP if you think it's a possibility. In the first 6-8 weeks, milk supply is governed by hormones but later on, the stimulation takes over as the deciding factor. If a baby can't nurse properly, your supply will not be as it should be.

http://milkmatters.org.uk/2011/04/15/hidden-cause-of-feeding-problems-however-you-feed-your-baby/

I exclusively breastfed all 3 of my children for the first 6 months and then continued until they self-weaned at about a year and a half. Actually, I'm still nursing my third, but he just turned a year old. I didn't exercise after the first two pregnancies. After my third I started MFP 6 weeks post-partum. I followed MFP's calorie allowance for a while until I decided it was too low and affecting my supply. I never dropped below 1,400 calories/day. I bumped up 1,800-2,000/day and still lost at a nice clip, plus my milk supply was much improved.

If you're truly consuming around 1,200 calories a day, that is too little. Have you figured out your TDEE and BMR? I suspect your BMR is higher than 1,200. You shouldn't drop below your BMR, especially if you're nursing.

I agree with the suggestion to have him checked for tongue tie. Even your pediatrician might miss it.

If you really want (or need) to count calories…

Studies have shown that most healthy breastfeeding women maintain an abundant milk supply while taking in 1800-2200 (or more) calories per day. Consuming less than 1500-1800 calories per day (most women should stay at the high end of this range) may put your milk supply at risk, as may a sudden drop in caloric intake. (See Can I diet while breastfeeding? for more information on calorie restriction).

A mother’s “baseline” need for calories (not including lactation) depends upon her activity level, weight and nutritional status. A mother who is less active, has more fat stores, and/or eats foods higher in nutritional value may need fewer calories than a mom who is more active, has fewer fat stores, and/or eats more processed foods. This link from the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine has more information (including a handy calculator) on determining your individual caloric needs: Research helps fine-tune a woman’s true caloric needs.

An exclusively breastfeeding mother, on average, needs to take in 300-500 calories per day above what was needed to maintain pre-pregnancy weight. Since the recommended added calories during the last two trimesters of pregnancy is 300 calories/day, an exclusively breastfeeding mother will typically need either the same amount of calories she was getting at the end of pregnancy, or up to 200 additional calories per day. That’s the equivalent of adding 1-2 healthy snacks per day.

Per Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (Riordan, 2004, p. 438), “The amount of energy needed by lactating mothers continues to be debated. The lactating mother need not maintain a markedly higher caloric intake than that maintained prior to pregnancy: in most cases, 400-500 calories in excess of that which is needed to maintain the mother’s body weight is sufficient.”

The number of additional calories needed for nursing depends on:

The extent of breastfeeding:
Is your child exclusively breastfed, mostly breastfed, or breastfed 1-2 times per day? If your nursling is only partially breastfed (for example, an older child who is getting less milk, or a younger child who is getting formula supplements), calorie requirements would be proportionally less.
Mom’s fat reserves:
Is your body mass index [BMI] low, high or in-between? A mom who does not have any spare fat reserves (and most of us do!) will need the greatest number of extra calories. Maternal fat stores typically provide about 200 calories per day towards lactation, so if your BMI is low (particularly if you’re considered very underweight, or BMI<19.8) you will need to get extra calories from your diet.



http://kellymom.com/nutrition/mothers-diet/mom-calories-fluids/

If he was getting too much foremilk you would usually be able to tell. He would typically have gas and poop issues from it. Your fat content won't drive the fat that is in your milk as in your breasts will take what it needs from your body you don't have to specifically feed it fat.. If you are too calorie deficient your body will shut down milk production. Make sure your doctor is looking at breast fed children's growth charts http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/who_charts.htm. Also remember statistically speaking there has to be someone that is in the lower percentile. If you line up 100 kids someone has to be number one.

I've breasted all 4 of my kids for their first year, each has had different issues. My third had a lot of trouble gaining weight--didn't get back to birthweight until she was 6 weeks old. I thought she was eating pretty well because she ate every three hours for 1-1/2 hrs each time. Yes, ridiculous! But when I went to the lactation consultant she determined that although she ate well I wasn't producing enough milk for some reason. So she had me take fenugreek, which helped tremendously--it's an herbal supplement. If your baby is pretty frequent on the wet and dirty diapers then everything may be fine, especially if the percentile is the same and isn't dropping. I don't know what you have available but my hospital has a lactation consultant you can see for free. I saw her every week for a couple months and she was a lifesaver!