Loni Jane credits banana-based pregnancy diet for baby's good sleep

She hit the headlines with a controversial pregnancy diet, but the Australian social media sensation who shocked us with her 20-bananas-a-day habit has defied doubters and given birth to a healthy baby boy.

Loni Jane Anthony gave birth to her son Rowdy Nash six weeks ago at 2.30am and was ready to go home by 6am. He weighed in at 8lb 7oz.

Loni told news.au.com she is “living proof that you don’t have to become a whale when you’re pregnant”.

Loni has been posting pictures of her new family to Instagram and revealed that she plans to raise Rowdy as a vegan, though he can make his own decision on that when he's older.

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“I had no idea what it would be like, I haven’t really been around babies very much, but it’s so amazing,” she tells news.com.au from her home on the Gold Coast.

“Rowdy’s feeding like a machine, I have plenty of breast milk, he’s growing, he’s sleeping, he’s happy.”

Speaking of her pregnancy diet, and how she's bounced back to pretty much her original size just five weeks after birth (as documented on her Instagram), Loni explained:

“I put on 17 kilos when I was pregnant, but that was pretty much all baby and fluid. In the first two days after giving birth, 10 kilos dropped off me. I’m back into a bit of yoga and cycling now, too."

She added that he's feeding well and sleeps for eight hours a night, which sounds like something of a miracle.

Loni gathered plenty of criticism back in November, after revealing her vegan pregnancy diet could see her eating up to 20 bananas a day. Then, nutritional therapist Caroline Skirrow, from Nuffield Fitness and Wellbeing Covent Garden derided the diet, saying:

"It's an extremely bad idea to follow this diet in pregnancy.

"This woman's body is creating a baby. Her protein needs are much higher than normal.

"There's also the risk of a deficiency in iron and in terms of hormone control and development of the baby’s brain, she needs to have a much higher intake of essential fats and fat generally because she needs to extra energy in the third trimester and later for breastfeeding."

But thankfully for baby Rowdy, Loni's pregnancy appears to have been a healthy one despite this.

“I know that as a human race we can definitely survive on this lifestyle," she said. "Too many kids get sick, are underweight, overweight, all kinds of things, it’s just not right. I’m over people thinking that being sick and unhealthy is normal."

We reckon there's probably a balance to be found somehwere...