How women can minimize or even completely avoid saggy breasts from breastfeeding with proper dietary preparation and strategic weaning to prepare the skin for maximum elasticity and repair.
One of the saddest things I sometimes hear from women who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant is that they intend to bottlefeed because they’ve been warned that breastfeeding causes droopy, saggy breasts.
Even women who are in full support of breastfeeding seem to accept that the choice to feed their child with Mother Nature’s best will ultimately sacrifice the firmness of breast tissue.
Are saggy breasts post nursing really just part and parcel of the process?
While every woman is different and certainly in some instances, pregnancy and breastfeeding can cause undesirable changes to the appearance of the bosom despite Mom’s best efforts, there are definite strategies that greatly lessen the impact.
In some cases, there can be little to no difference in breast appearance after pregnancy and nursing.
It really is possible to birth and nurse several children with little change in the appearance of the bosom after weaning the youngest child.
Could Saggy Breasts Syndrome perhaps primarily be the result of the appalling diet of most nursing mothers?
Does the modern, accepted approach to weaning abruptly also play a huge role in the loss of breast integrity?
Let’s take a look!
Diet for Strong Breast Tissue
The most important thing a woman can do prior to nursing is to adequately prepare the breasts for the stress and strain of nursing with a diet that results in very strong, elastic skin.
Of critical note is to embrace a traditional diet that includes butter, cream, full fat yogurt and other animal fats to maximize elastic breast tissue.
This also means avoiding toxic vegetable oils from factory-produced, low cholesterol spreads, dressings, and other processed foods.
This ideal pregnancy and nursing diet provides suggestions for daily fat intake.
The reason healthy fats in the diet help avoid saggy breasts is that every cell in your body has a cellular membrane that is ideally composed of at least 50% saturated fat.
When the cell membranes of the skin and tissues are composed of the proper fats, they are strong, resilient, and highly elastic.
Healthy Fats = Healthy Skin
If you avoid saturated fats and starve your skin of what it needs, the cell membranes will be improperly formed with an oval instead of a perfectly round shape.
This increases the risk of irreparable damage from the stretching and straining of the skin and breast tissue from nursing.
Incidentally, plenty of saturated fats in the diet is also key to avoiding stretch marks on the breasts when the milk rapidly comes in a few days after baby is born.
Skin cell membranes comprised of 50%+ saturated fat will be elastic and resilient from this sudden strain!
The benefit is stronger breast tissue that can return to its original pre-pregnancy and pre-nursing shape with as little change as possible.
Another benefit is that the breasts are more resistant to mastitis.
Elusive Nutrients
Plenty of vitamin K2 in the diet is important for breast tissue integrity as well.
This largely ignored nutrient is in the superfood natto in large amounts. Japanese women who consume it daily enjoy superior skin elasticity and resistance to sagging and wrinkling.
Low Vitamin K2 in the diet is literally the vitamin deficiency that is written all over your face (and breasts).
Over 90% of people are estimated to be seriously deficient in this nutrient!
Grassfed butter, ghee, emu oil, goose liver pate, and pastured eggs are other excellent sources of this nutrient.
Another critical fat that healthy skin needs is arachidonic acid. Â
This fat is primarily found in egg yolks and butter.
Interestingly, women in traditional Chinese provinces like Chongqing are encouraged to eat up to 10 eggs per day along with plenty of chicken and (1)
Without a doubt, arachidonic acid (AA) is an underappreciated fat for maintaining healthy skin.
It works by ensuring the proper formation of junctures between skin cells. Â
Without enough arachidonic acid in the diet, skin cannot adequately maintain moisture and is more susceptible to damage.
When the gaps are larger than they need to be, the water between cells evaporates from missing tight cell-to-cell junctions. (2)
Ideal Weaning Age
In addition to diet, the weaning approach a woman employs significantly impacts the perkiness versus sagginess of her bosoms at the conclusion of breastfeeding.
The modern approach to weaning is for Mom to initiate the process and do so fairly suddenly once the child starts eating solid foods or she goes back to work.
Moms beware: Weaning around the 4-6 month mark contributes greatly to saggy breasts.
This is the very time when baby’s demands for breastmilk are the greatest (hence, nursing breasts are at their largest size).
Stopping abruptly at this point is not a good idea!
It can be a primary cause for excessively saggy breasts similar to what happens when an obese person loses weight rapidly after gastric bypass surgery.
Tapering After Baby is on Solids
The better way to wean is as gradually as possible, ideally somewhere between the 2-4 year mark.
While this may seem to be a long time by modern standards, extended breastfeeding has many long-term health benefits for baby. (3)
When weaning is very gradual, the the demand for nursing eases off slowly as baby’s appetite for solid food increases.
This gives the body plenty of time to slowly shrink and reabsorb the breast tissue.
Skin that stretched and expanded to accommodate large quantities of breastmilk when the child was an infant can gradually be reabsorbed.
This strategic weaning approach greatly minimizes or can even completely prevent issues with sagging.
Think of the difference between someone who loses weight at a rapid pace (such as after gastric bypass surgery) versus someone who loses weight slowly but surely with improvements in diet and exercise alone.
In the first scenario, large amounts of excess, sagging skin usually need to be removed by a second surgery a year or two down the track.
The second scenario presents far fewer problems with excess, sagging skin with surgery likely not needed at all.
Extended Breastfeeding is a Traditional Practice
Nursing a child until 2-4 years old mimics the practice of Traditional Societies. (4)
These cultures carefully spaced the birth of children to ensure the optimal health of each child as well as the provision of nutrient-dense breastmilk until the child was a young toddler.
Careful attention and thought to the diet well before pregnancy and during nursing combined with a slow approach to weaning can go a long way toward ensuring that your breasts provide not only optimal nutrition for your baby but also maintain their shape and perkiness afterward!
(1) Successful Breastfeeding and Alternatives
(2) Precious Yet Perilous
(3) Do You Think Breastfeeding a 3-Year-Old is Strange? In the Ancient World, It Saved Lives
(3) Fat and Energy Contents of Expressed Human Breast Milk in Prolonged Lactation
Can the damage be undone? I am nursing my third and last child and in my mid thirties. She is two years old and I plan to gradually wean as she is ready. I Plan to changed my diet as soon as possible to included tons of health fats. How long does it take before a mom sees a difference in skin elasticity?
Surgery is the only way I know.
Well that’s not a very helpful answer! Yes there r ways to reverse the damage, such as diet change, quit wearing a bra (new studies have shown they cause sagging not prevent it), essential oils, etc. of course these methods won’t be as quick or dramatic of a change as surgery, but there are options that can at least improve sagging.
Hi Everyone!
I am in full favor of breastfeeding and went thru hell for it (and I would do it again). Unfortunately, I had to wean quickly because of health issues and I am wondering how long it takes for the breast tissue to change into non-lactationg tissue. Not so much for how they look but for breast health, my tongue tied baby did a number on them. Im a first time mom and I was wondering if anyone with more experience could share some insight with me. It has been 3 weeks since I had to wean.
Thanks!
Always wanted to know why my breasts are full and perky as always post children. I breastfed twins for 20mths and was late thirties. I could not understand everyone saying boobs flat and saggy. Thanks now I know it was because I delayed weaning. If more ladies knew that they would probably reconsider weaning.
That’s not always the case, my boobs did not stay full and perky. They are saggy now after breastfeeding my 14 month old. I’m thinking its because I stopped wearing underwire push up bras and switched to easy sports bras or bralettes. Which are easier to pull out and feed my baby.
My baby weaned.himself at 6 months. He had teeth and wanted food. So i didnt have a choice
kellymom.com/bf/normal/babyselfwean/
It is EXTREMELY unlikely that a baby truely self weaned at 6 months old
I am just wondering if you are aware that Kelly Bonyata and her KellyMom website has been outed as a scam.
The website does not provide legitimate information – the content on the pages themselves are promoting impractical information.
The information throughout the site only seems useful because it is word-relevant to the title of the articles.
It’s all just a ploy to dominate low-competition search terms and reap the rewards with ad revenue.
http://www.cbn.com/health/naturalhealth/drsears_arachidonicacid.aspx
Well, I would never breast feed my son until he’s 4 y/o.
I did it for 3 months and I think that I’ll never get the breast I had before.
Before pregnancy, they were a cup bigger than after breastfeeding, but I don’t mind now, because it was the most beautiful experience.
I ate lots of veggies, meat too, cheese but overall it was quite healthy. After delivery, I weighted less than before getting pregnant. I had very few fat left and struggled a lot to gain fat.
It was all going in the milk.
My son is 12 months now and my breast is saggy and ugly. THat’s part of it.
Why would you never feed your son til he’s 4? I’m not criticising your choices but 4 years is much closer to our biological weaning age that 3 months.
There is absolutely no evidence to support that claim, period. We are not living in the stone ages – things are different now.
Yes, many “things” are different now, but human biology isn’t one of those things. The BIOLOGICAL age for weaning is somewhere between 2-7 years old. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding for at least 2 years. I’m not saying everyone should nurse their child until they are in grade school, but we need to recognize that the early weaning prominent in our culture is based on a cultural norm and not evidence-based.
I find this article to be very retarded and not modern are even about a working woman . Feeding a child until he/she is four make no sense it will not help anything .
Breastfeeding for multiple years will not help the corporate, military industrial complex but it certainly will help your child be healthier than without, my kids get breastfed until they are 3 & 1/2 or so. Remember what all these working moms are working for, do not loose sight of the forest for the trees (is it your own family that you will sacrifice for or a boss who could and would replace you in a heartbeat?).
Sean, that all sounds nice and dandy, but what about women who HAVE to work? I’m pregnant with my son and I am most definitely going to breastfeed, but I may only get at the least 6 weeks off from work after I have my baby, and I won’t be able to breastfeed as much when I go back to work. I would love to breastfeed my baby until he’s at least 2 or more, as I know how beneficial it can be, especially if you breast feed even longer (even up to 5 years or more). We can’t afford to live only off of my baby’s father’s income, even if he gets another job, and I have to go back to work to help keep food on the table and a roof over our heads, and not to mention be able to afford everything that comes with a child. I’m not sitting here trying to sacrifice my family for my boss, but how will my child live the best life possible if mommy and daddy can’t afford to provide the essentials? The only way we’ll make it and be OK is if I get my butt back to work. It’s great that you can stay home and breastfeed your children until they are 3 1/2,but not everyone has that luxury. The best option I see is getting a pump and having my baby bottle fed with my breast milk, although I would love to continue with the actual act of breastfeeding. I suppose that my child will still be getting all of the benefits of breast milk that way, so that’s what matters.
You don’t have to stay home for4 years to breastfeed a baby. I stayed home for the first year only. I then went back to work. I am still breastfeeding.the baby is now one and a half.it’s not that hard. I just breastfeed in the mornings until4 pm now.
I meant breastmilk nutrition*
I can tell you from experience that this article is nonsense. It is written by someone who is seriously pro breast feeding and is willing to lie to you to make you do it (and for a long time – breat feeding to 4 years old! Give me a break!)
Breast feeding will destroy your breasts. That’s a fact. With my first child I was unable to breast feed (I had a load of milk, she just wouldn’t drink), and even though they shrank back down pretty quickly (against the advice of this article), they were basically just as they were before the pregnancy.
For my second pregnancy, I breast fed until my son was 1. It was clear after a few months of breast feeding that my breasts would never be the same again, and that’s what happened. They are smaller than before and they are saggy.
I’m not here to say don’t breast feed, but you should know the real truth and not let articles like this delude you.
Agree with your comment 100% . I was also surprise how many people agree with the nonsense about 4 years breastfeeding .
It’s not nonsense, the longer you breastfeed the more beneficial it is to your child.
Well, I have been breastfeeding my children for over 7 years now. (Oldest one has been weaned for years, youngest one is almost 5 and almost weaned). My breasts are not as perky as they were before kids. I didn’t expect them to be. Nothing is as perky as it was 8 years ago. However, my breasts are no smaller than they were beforehand and if anything, they’re bigger. They’re not saggy.
A lot of it comes down to genetics – and as mentioned – diet but also age.
Pregnancy in itself is what usually does the damage. Your milk will come in and your breasts will swell whether you plan to breastfeed or not.
pure nonsense really,4 years breastfeeding?whose tradition? those years like in my country people will give birth to 10 kids meaning one breastfeed for 5 months then get pregnant again or one year,modern times who will walk around smelling milk for 4 years while tutu can eat,talk and chose what to eat? and for your breast to go back to normal after a long time spent breastfeeding you will take maybe 5 years or more ive seen people who breatfed for long. so good luck waiting for your breast to become firm after 4 years breastfeeding.
Yes, let’s be honest & let women make well informed choices!! I breastfeed both my kids & after the first child, who drank from the tap for a year, I lost almost a full cup size & some shape but I was actually very happy with the change because I had been a D+ cup prior to pregnancy & actually enjoyed the smaller C/D size. After my second child I lost almost another full cup size & was now down to a standard C cup size which in itself doesn’t bother me at all. What does bother me significantly is the shape. I am an personal trainer by profession & have always exercised & been healthy & eaten well so that has nothing to do with it. Simply put, the breast tissue that grew as a teen to cover my DD cup size is now covering a C cup size & the result is way too much skin for the now-smaller underlying mammory glands & frankly my breasts look like withered balloons. It does not in anyway fit the rest of my well toned body & its really depressing. While they did perk up slightly over the year after stopping breastfeeding they are still quite droopy & nothing but surgery can change that. I still would have breast fed my kids, it was a great bonding experience… but I would definitely have NOT breasfed as long and I would have been much more careful to wean super slowly! LET”S LET WOMEN MAKE INFORMED CHOICES!!!
2-4 years? I’m sorry but I think if a child is at the age that they should be able to at least form simple sentences they are too old to be breast fed. I mean what are you doing to do, have a conversation with your kid between it’s sips. *suck suck* “Mommy I want a puppy” *suck suck suck* “You have to ask your daddy. OWW don’t bite!” “Sorry mommy” *suck suck* Ummm…… No thank you!
Nursed both my boys til they were at least three hrs. I nursed the older one during the pregnancy with his brother and tandem nursed them (aw so sweet and awesome) until older boy weaned. I’m still nursing younger brother. Haven’t tried yet to have any more children.
Wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Breasts are an organ for mammals to nourish their young. Period.
My advice for people is to grow up. I Am beautiful. I love my body. My children grew inside of me. And I nourished them. And I love them and support them.
I am a mother. And I am beautiful. Because I know this I am free from any judgements that don’t benefit myself or my children. It’s great,
2-4 years? I’m sorry but I think if a child is at the age that they should be able to at least form simple sentences they are too old to be breast fed. I mean what are you doing to do, have a conversation with your kid between it’s sips. *suck suck* “Mommy I want a puppy” *suck suck suck* “You have to ask your daddy. OWW don’t bite!” “Sorry mommy” *suck suck* Ummm…… No thank you!
Thats what i am saying most 4 year old start school and can talk pretty well and it also look gross when a child can eat solid food still breastfeeding with all its tooth .
Since when does human milk become bad for the child just because they can talk? That is pure ignorance. American people is the only people in the world that have a problem with breastfeeding. Breast milk is way healthier than cows milk as long as mom isn’t eating processed junk all the time. And Breast milk does not just all of a sudden become unhealthy for a child just because he or she is old enough for solid foods or able to talk.
This si ridiculous. I think that our American Society is the only society that has such a problem with breastfeeding. Do you know that there are many other countries in the world where it is normal to breastfeed your child for a few years? Multiple countries in South America do that. Just because your child is talking doesn’t mean that he’s still not getting all of the amazing benefits of breast milk. It’s not like you’re going to breastfeed the child all the time when they are 4, but there’s nothing wrong with a breastfeed maybe at night before bed. It’s only weird to us because in American Society we see everything as so taboo. If you were raised in another part of the world where this is normal you would have to issues with this at all. To each his own, I respect your choice, but don’t criticize other people for making a decision that actually further benefits the child.