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
Other factors can influence the timing of weaning so it would be great to know any helpful alternatives to reduce chances of saggy breaks other than delaying weaning to age 2-4 year. My doctor has advised that weaning is the only way to get my hormone levels back to normal which will result in the womb and other sensitive tissues thickening back to pre pregnancy norms. I currently can’t enjoy a comfortable intimate relationship with my husband, apparently due to the thinning of these tissues which causes extreme pain. my son has just turned 6 months and I am starting to gradually wean (just one feed a day is now formula) but would like to know if other than eating more good fats if there is anything more I can do? I don’t want to sacrifice my relationship for the sake of my breasts, but also don’t want to them to disappear as they did after I stopped feeding my eldest at 10months. I’m not planning on having more children so can’t use the next pregnancy to reinflate them! Any advise would be much appreciated. (I’m based in the UK so would need to be able to access any wonder products from here!) thanks v much!
I recommend reading Diet Recovery and Doet Recovery 2 by Matt Stone. He explains about metabolism; what it really is and how to get it working again. Getting metabolism up helps with all sorts of issues. You will have to read it with an open mind because it is almost backwards from most health books, here in the US, anyway. They are both available on the Kindle through Amazon.com. I have been doing what it says in the books for about a year, but not to the full extent until recently. My temperature, first thing in the morning used to be 95.9°F-97.3°F. Now it is above 98°F for about 4 days. I have more energy and feel great. It is supposed to make your breasts bigger or with more tissue in them.
I read this article and tried doing my best to eat healthy and prepare myself for the changes pregnancy and breastfeeding would do to my body.
I was never well endowed (32b-32d at most) but once I started gradually weaning, my beasts seemed to go back down to a normally, pre-pregnancy size.
However once I finished weaning, the next week I was flat chested!!! They feel and they’re literally empty, as in nothing. I went to buy new bras (just to have support) but they’re so awkwardly shaped no cup size fits.
I already had issues dealing with insecurity but trying on 20+ bras at Kohl’s trying to find something just made me break down in tears.
Is this it? Has anyone else dealt with this? What do you think about this?
It’s been about a year now and i remember when i first weaned my son, quite suddenly, i was miserable with my chest. Very flat like deflated balloons. But I’ve been eating better and exercising, drinking alot of water and have noticed more fulness in my chest now. Not as full as pre pregnancy but alot better. Don’t give up hope! Just give it time
Yes I am in the same boat .My breasts were small but they were perky and nicely shaped. They became huge while pregnant and breastfeeding and I had 3 back to back. They seemed to get smaller and smaller with every baby. Now they are misshapen and also hard to fit. Makes me sad because I don’t like to see them .
Fill em up before stopping and bind with sports bra. Never stop when they are empty,
You may be exercising too much or not eating enough good fats or in general, that’s not normal for them to go down more than what you were before. Try Fenugreek I heard that it increases breast size.
I have nursed 7 children and birthed 9. My breasts started out as a 34b, at their largest ( not counting being engorged) were a full 36c. They were that way for years. After tandem nursing my most recent children for about 1.5 years I lost a significant amount of weight (from 200 to 130) and now my breasts are a 34a. There seems to be no density at all to them. Plus they are very saggy, what little there is. I am expecting again so maybe they will regain some of their old size! My husband always tells me he loves the way I look and we enjoy a very healthy intimate life although I am self conscious about my body. But I try not to let that attitude show in the bedroom. Its important to me to not put a damper on our lovelife not just for him but for me as well. I dont want him complaining about his big belly everytime we are in the sack! Lol!
I breastfed my daughter (my first and only child) until after she was 2 (nearly 27 months old) and at the beginning when breast milk comes in and is so full, you’d never expect that your boobs would shrink and sag but that is where I’m at. I noticed it slowly as I was weaning her gradually and now that we’ve been done for over a month, they are saggy and a lot smaller. I was a B cup before and while I still wear one now I don’t fill it out as nicely. In some ways now I’m glad I waited until I was 35 to have her, now I’m 37. Having said all of that, I would do it all again in a heartbeat, it was a great experience. My mother had a very different experience-she had me at 26 and no sagging breasts then had my brother at 37 and she actually grew a cup size. At 3.5 months old, my daughter started teething and wouldn’t drink well for a long stretch, I was determined not to give up. I never pumped which I now know helps increase more milk, my husband was overseas a couple months later and I was stressed out and it caused me to lose weight and keep it off (I weighed less than before getting pregnant). I tried so hard to gain but I think that may have had something to do with it. I hope to find a natural supplement to turn things around, even a little bit. One thing I didn’t do that I maybe wished I had have done is moisturized more but my organic lotions were lightly scented and I avoided them so it wouldn’t cause issues with nursing. A good collagen/elastin cream would help keep things firm.
I had saggy boobs, covered with stretch marks after pregnancy, not necessary to say that I didn’t like them. I was sceptical to think a product would work but I used the Somaluxe FIrming Lotion (the large bottle) and I am now-amazed at the result! my boobs appear firmer and the stretch marks are somehow less visible.best to give it a try, it worked for me, hopefully will work for you too, it feels that I have my pre-pregnancy/breastfeeding boobs back!
Don’t ask why a guy is posting here, was heart breaking to hear some ladies concerns. Breasts are great, but just breasts. Nothing compared to doing your family right and, having confidence in yourself. I love my wife no matter what she weighs before or after pregnancy/breastfeeding. She is concerned about weight and her appearance with all the changes, and wether I still find her attractive after. I tell her I think shes sexy no matter what, and she is. The only thing that concerns me is if she becomes unhealthy, or our kid does. Folks been breast feeding since the beginning of human history. Our culture in America is just friggin pretentious BS. Flush em!
well good for you…but you don’t understand!
Fantastic attitude! Thank you for your perspective. It helps.
After having my child I had the , most beautiful dd breasts. After I stopped breastfeeding my dd went to a small saggy b cup. I bought boobpop tool product not to grow back my gigantic breast feeding boobs. But to atleast gain some kind of tissue back into my breasts. After using for about 6 months my breasts are now a firm c cup
What are boobpop tools and where can I find them? Thanks!
There’s a very interesting dichotomy in these comments between those who claim to eschew “vanity” and “self image” in favour of selfless sacrifice for their children’s health and those who seem to think breast feeding is best kept to a minimum, out of sight and should stop when a child turns two.
A little depressing too that people are so quick to pass judgement on the all ultimately well thought out decisions of other parents.
So.. I think breast feeding is amazing, for the all the usual reasons, it allows a unique bond with your child, enables you to pass on antibodies and ultimately have a lot more control over your child’s nutrition (i.e. at any age, you’ll always have more say about your own diet than that of the cow or sheep which produced the bottled milk you buy).
I also see views which try to portray breast feeding as deviant, anti-social, unnatural etc. (many of which are expressed in phrases such a “suck” “suck”, “drank from the tap” etc.) as both degrading and ultimately reminiscent of long entrenched discourses that try to attribute sin to a a woman’s body and choices.
However, none of this should mean that we, as happily breast feeding mothers, should take the moral high ground. None of it means we should dismiss the “vanity” of others and box worries about self image, physical appearance, beauty, attractiveness away as shallow and irrelevant.
I can only speak for myself and those around me, but worries like these do matter to me, and not (only) because we flock around seeking society’s approval of our body image, but because we are all growing older and because love for our children isn’t diametrically opposed to love for ourselves- the two can actually complement each other. I’d chose a happy, satisfied, proud parent who feels pleasure and love for life over one who is tied up in all the sacrifices he or she made to have kids any day.
Rant aside, I think my experience corroborates the conclusions of this article. I breast fed my first child, who I had in my mid 20s, until he was 2, reducing feeds very gradually until, feeding on demand until I started work at 10 months and then slowly reducing it to night time only by about 18 months. My breasts stayed large, beautiful, good as new throughout and after I stopped.
I am still breast feeding my second child, who I had in my late 20s and is now 17 months old, however, as I had to start work far earlier with her (I began leaving her for 9 hours a day when she was 4 months old). I started noticing my breasts were really losing size (for the first time ever) at about 7 months. I’ve been feeding her in the evenings ever since, but I think what was, in effect, a sudden reduction in feeding so early has taken its toll. Its worth saying, though, that despite all that, I have been able to carry on producing enough milk for her although I started working so early and even though I realised in my first week back at work that the time I’d spend pumping milk in my lunch breaks wasn’t time efficient and I might as well work through and finish the day a little earlier to get back home.
According to my wife, the serum helps with her tummy as our baby grows. She said previously, her skin itched a lot as it stretched with the pregnancy. With Mederma, her skin has become elastic and adjusts well.
Some would disagree, Weston A. Price talks about going 2-3 years between pregnancies giving your body time to recoup, heal, and replenish the nutrients taken from mom during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Also just because you’re breastfeeding doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant, and likewise just because you get pregnant doesn’t mean you can’t still nurse your baby. I know several people who have had their children very close together and nurse both, called tandem nursing.