someone PLEASE help me

I'm a 28 year old nursing mom, i started out 6-13-09 at 199. I'm 5'4 ive lost 9 pounds so i guess thats good. cc recommends 1400 calorie intake i never even come close.i probably should because im hungry from morning to night . my highest intake this week was 1040 aside from yesterday 1545 which was cheat day. (my wonderful husband has been taking this weight loss adventure with me and he says we need a cheat day thank god for that) now for the problem. i continue to have mommy milk issues i take fenugreek which helps alot. but i can no longer have milk the ped. just told me my 4 month old is allergic to the cows milk in my diet ,so i need lots of ideas for quick one handed snacks with either no milk or very minimal for cooking purposes only and some other way to get the calcuim baby needs since my nightly banana milk is no longer an option. im so confused i want to continue nursing but im so desperate to loss weight is there something better to watch for maximum loss other that calories im hopeing to hear lots of advice thank you all so much so i should also mention i have a 3 year old also so the less prep time the better

Well, I really don't drink milk unless I have to, so I'm not sure I'll be very helpful... but if you really have to have milk, consider soy, rice or goat milk. Otherwise, water is always a good thing! I'm also a breastfeeding mom with a baby the same age as yours, I rely on my prenatel vitamins which I have continued taking for most of the calcium in my diet and it doesn't seem to be hurting my son any... He's way ahead of the curve for most things physical. You would probably not have to take fenugreek if you upped your calories to 1500. It's more than likely your low calorie intake which is hurting the supply. And as they say- It took 9 months to gain the weight, give yourself at least that long to get it back off!

Ask your doctor to make sure but I would imagine soya milk fortified with vits and minerals and calcium would do the trick?

Well, you're having "mommy milk" issues becasue you are not eating enough calories to make milk and run your body.  You can't expect tp breastfeed on 1040 calories a day.  You need to add at least 500 extra calories a day for breastfeeding alone.  You can't expect to be successful at breastfeeding if you aren't doing that. This time should be about feeding your baby, not all about you wanting to lose weight.  The weight will come off, but only if you do this correctly. I bet you will find that you will actually lose more weight if you increase your caloires for breastfeeding.  And make sure you are drinking plenty of water.  I understand you wanting the pounds gone, but, you have to eat enough to make milk for your baby.

Original Post by mollie0516:

Well, you're having "mommy milk" issues becasue you are not eating enough calories to make milk and run your body.  You can't expect tp breastfeed on 1040 calories a day.  You need to add at least 500 extra calories a day for breastfeeding alone.  You can't expect to be successful at breastfeeding if you aren't doing that. This time should be about feeding your baby, not all about you wanting to lose weight.  The weight will come off, but only if you do this correctly. I bet you will find that you will actually lose more weight if you increase your caloires for breastfeeding.  And make sure you are drinking plenty of water.  I understand you wanting the pounds gone, but, you have to eat enough to make milk for your baby.

 What she said! You're eating far too few calories to lose weight and make milk. I know it sounds crazy but here's my post from another topic:

As I've posted before, it takes roughly 20 calories to produce 1 ounce of breastmilk. I'm breastfeeding my 8-month-old and he eats 4 ounces of milk 7-8 times per day which means I'm burning 560-640 calories just producing milk alone. My maintenance calories at 5'2"/5'3" and 130 pounds are roughly 1800 per day and I'm lightly active. So, I'm burning approximately 2360 calories at least each day. I eat 1900-2000 calories daily and lose 1-2 pounds per week.

If you want to continue to breastfeed, you need to eat more. I know it doesn't sound right but if you have too great a calorie deficit (eating less than you burn), your body will hold onto the weight. According to CC, if you're "lightly active" then you're burning 1820 calories daily. Add an additional 500-600 calories burned by producing milk and you're at 2320-2420 calories burned each day. This means you should be eating AT LEAST 1900-2000 calories daily in order to keep up your milk supply AND lose weight. I'm willing to bet that you'll lose a LOT of weight if you up your calories.

As far as the cow's milk issue goes...I second the soy milk suggestion. I was an avid cow's milk drinker but my husband is lactose intolerant so I tried switching to soy milk. It took some getting used to but now I prefer it over cow's milk. I'm not sure what to recommend snack-wise, though. There's a child in our playgroup who's allergic to milk and there's so much he can't eat because milk is in EVERYTHING! That is, everything pre-packaged. How about apples with peanut butter? A bowl of broth? Soymilk with bananas (since you like banana milk)? A small spinach salad?

Good luck!

My daughter is also allergic to cow's milk so i've taken it out of my diet while breastfeeding.

Like Bier suggsted I'm big on fruits with a little bit of Peanut butter. I also have been using corn tortillas instead of bread because the bread I used to use had some milk products in it.

I also am totally obsessed with eggs and egg beaters. And eggs are super easy to prepare.

I second and third all the soy milk suggestions. 8th continent light vanilla soymilk has only 60 Cals per cup and tastes so yummy and is fortified with calcium.

It is really hard to get enough calcium without milk. It is something I've been struggling with since we found out about DD allergy, a month ago.

It does make dieting easier, though! No chocolate and no ice cream!

you're having breastfeeding issues because you are starving your body.  Calorie count does not consider the fact that you are breastfeeding in their recommendations.

Breastfeeding requires an additional 500 cals/day roughly.  Not only are you having quantity issues, but the quality of your milk is also probably suffering.

If you want to bf, you need to eat more.  Its that simple.  Worry about the weight after you are done bf'ing.

I am a small female so my maintenance is only 1600 calories and I am breastfeeding my 4 month old, eating no less than 1500 cals a day losing a pound or so a week. In articles I have read it says that a breast feeding women CAN burn calories while breastfeeding and I have heard lots of others say that they have been eating the required amount (maintenance plus) and not dropped a pound. I would start off eating enough calories like I would find your maintenance and eat that. Once you're eating enough calories your milk supply will come back up and as long as you are eating good foods the quality of your milk will not suffer!!! Just like in pregnancy the body will take the nutrients from the mother first to give to baby and it is the same with breastfeeding the nutrients will go to the milk supply first than to the mommy!!

As the others have said, your problem is that you are under eating, no is recommended to eat below 1200 calories per day and when I was 200 lbs I had a cc recommended cal intake of around 1600 so how on earth have you got yours down to 1400, is that what you have put it to reach an unrealistic goal weight in too short a time?

Up your calorie intake to at least 1600 per day religiously and you should help out your milk issues and also increase your changes of losing weight.  The future issue you have with a current calorie allowance of 1400 is that you have little room to move with regards to reducing your calories as you lose weight.  I started at 205 lbs with 1800 cals per day and didn't reduce to 1400 cals till I was down around the 180 lbs mark and its only now that I am at 175lbs that I have dropped my calorie goal daily to 1350. 

Most days I eat over this because I burn around 400 additional cals per day walking and I am still loosing my 2 lbs per week which is designated as a healthy lose.

Sorry to sound curt, but you really need to listen to what your body is telling you, because it is telling you what the BABY needs and right now it's telling you to EAT.   Your baby is undergoing massive mental and physical growth right now and the only thing it gets to fuel this growth is what is being produced by your body!

Your baby is only 4 months old!  If you eat healthy and stay active, the baby weight will come off, but it will take time!   It's hard to enjoy your little one when your stressing over baby weight.

P.S.  I think that your body will hold onto weight when your nursing.  It goes back to the caveman days when we had to have enough fat stored so we could make milk in case of a famine.

Definitely not enough calories, as previous posters have said!!!  You can lose weight while breatfeeding, but only if you eat enough calories!  And if you don't lose for awhile,  keep in mind that you are doing the right thing by breastfeeding your baby, who is totally dependant on you!  The needs of your baby should come before the weight loss.  My Grandson is allergic to many things, including cow's milk, so his mom had to cut out many things.  She gets her calcium from supplements and fortified rice milk.  Consider making a large batch of soup, vegi sticks/ low cal dressing for dip, pasta, whatever & have stuff in the fridge ready to heat & eat.  Having healthy stuff ready will help avoid stuffing anything in reach.

You may want to consider NOT substituting soy milk for cow's milk.  My daughter was also allergic to the cow's milk I was drinking when I nursed her (she was collicky and slept through the night for the first time the day after I stopped drinking milk) and the advice I received (from one of the top children's hospitals in London, Ontario where she was also born 6 weeks early) was to avoid soy milk as well -- if they are allergic to cow's milk, soy milk is a bad choice - it is an allergen and they can easily develop allergies to it as well.  I was told rice milk was a good choice - watery but I got used to it after awhile.  Other things we were told to do was to get rid of all the carpet in our house, get rid of all stuffed animals, get rid of pets (yes, we had to give our dog away) and mini blinds are a huge no-no - curtains can be washed regularly, mini blinds are dust magnets.  We were also told to install central air to limit her exposure to the outside allergens in the spring.

We were told that because she developed an allergy so early (around 6 weeks), the more she was exposed to allergens (soy, dust, pollen, nuts, etc.) the more likely she was to develop additional allergies and eventually asthma which she would probably have her entire life. 

We followed all of the recommendations for the first 5 or 6 years of her life and gradually exposed her to the allergens we were told to avoid to see if she had any reactions -  and today she is a happy, healthy 12 year old with absolutely no allergies - including both cow's and soy milk and we have a dog again!!

I did have a list of the recommendations at one point (there were more I don't remember) but it has been 12 years - you may be able to find something online. 

Just thought I would share our experience.

If you want calcium in your diet, try TUMs. They have roughly 40-60% of your calcium requirments per serving.

Breast milk production problems can be attributed to your VERY low cal intake. Most doctors and diet gurus will tell you to eat about 1200 cals a day for normal people. Breastfeeding mothers should get any where from 1800-2200 cal a day for milk production. If you eat less then this amount for more than a couple of days then your bod goes into starvation mode and will hang on to every calorie it can, and very soon after that you won't be able to produce any milk at all.

I breast fed my boy for about 10-11 months. When I was cleared by my doc to start exercising and dieting, he told me to consume about 1700 cals a day. I didn't drastically increase my exercise and I was able to shed about 40lbs of the 60lbs that I gained with my son in the first 13 months. 

soy milk is rly good! just don't give it to your baby early on unless your dr says otherwise. umm, so is rice milk. :] since you like banana milk, i'd recommend vanilla or chocolate soy. has a very sweet, filling taste. yummm. <3