Nursing mom.......should I start Keto or wait till I'm done nursing?
MissSeven
Posts: 27 Member
Nursing mom here. I was doing some research in Keto and was considering starting it. However, I'm still nursing my son. Should I wait till I'm done nursing and then begin the Keto WOE or can I just start. I'm not sure how this will affect my milk supply or the baby. Any nursing moms doing Keto? Please share.
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Read this blog My Zero Carb Life. It is really inspiring! Kelly Hogan went from keto to zero carb and managed to deliver 2 healthy babies and breastfeed them while maintaining her zero carb woe. You can follow through and just click next post at the end of each. http://myzerocarblife.jamesdhogan.com/wp/2015/01/my-doctor-said-lose-100-pounds/4
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If I remember correctly @ominousdusk is currently nursing as well?1
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I'm really glad you posted this Miss Seven I just started the keto diet and was wondering about nursing myself because I have an 8 month old baby.1
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Personally, my supply absolutely tanked once I cut carbs. I'm not sure if it was directly caused by the lack of carbsor if it was the lack of hunger and corresponding calorie reduction, though, or if it was just a natural ebb to my supply--my baby was 13 months old and that also corresponded with him dropping down to 1 nursing session a day. I'm just not sure if supply dropped first often and dropped first because I wasn't tracking it that closely.
My recommendation is to ease into low carb rather than jump into it headfirst like I did lol.
(That being said, my little guy is 18 months old and still nursing once a day.)1 -
If you were already Keto before, you could probably keep it up, but since you lose so much water and low electrolytes and dehydration is so common upon first going even just lower level low carb, I think you'd be risking your milk supply.
Maybe just cutting carbs to the upper limit around 150 to even 200 would be a better idea for now. The water and electrolytes give an average, non nursing person so much trouble that it seems very likely that you'd have volume issues.
You already need so much more water than normal, I can't imagine how much water and sodium you'd have to get every single day to keep up normal volumes.
It shouldn't be as challenging at the higher levels though.
And, you certainly don't want to cut calories right now. At least not by much at all and that's assuming you have a good amount of fat storage. If you only have a little to lose (40lbs or so imo) I would make sure to get maintenance calories during this time.
It would be asking an aweful lot of your body right after birth and while nursing to make such a big metabolic change.
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@Sunny_Bunny_ thanks so much! The information you provided is really helpful.0
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@sarahthes thanks! I will keep this in mind.0
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