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Home › Articles › Issues for Mom › Nutrition After Baby

Nutrition After Baby

Now You're Really Eating for Two

By Jenn Director Knudsen

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Katy Lebbing couldn't figure out why she was so weak.

"I was just lightheaded," says Lebbing. "I mean, I could barely walk." As it turns out, she wasn't getting enough to eat while she was nursing her first baby.

Today Lebbing, now 55 and mother of four children (all breastfed), is manager of the Center for Breastfeeding Information and a member of the Education and Member Services Department of La Leche League International, based in Schaumburg, Ill.

But decades ago, she found herself in the same postpartum shoes many newbie nursing moms find themselves in. Because she was no longer pregnant, she believed she was no longer eating for two. She had no idea why she was so hungry, thirsty and fatigued all the time. Nor did she know why her new son was so fussy and always wanted to nurse.

The fact is, a nursing mother needs up to twice as many calories a day as a woman in her second and third trimesters of pregnancy. It's necessary to help her recover from birth and to generate an adequate milk supply for her baby.

"Most of us think of giving birth as the end of pregnancy, but nursing is actually a continuation of the whole process," says Lisa Tartamella Kimmel, a registered dietitian and outpatient nutrition coordinator at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn.

Experts and veteran nursing moms agree: Listen to your lactating body and feed it when it tells you to. By doing so, you'll be feeding your baby just what he needs and – sooner than you think – you'll be able to wiggle back into your pre-pregnancy jeans.

How Much You Needed Then and Now
Most expectant mothers need up to 300 additional calories a day during the last half of pregnancy. A breastfeeding mom needs about 500 extra calories daily to produce as much milk as her baby needs. And some lactating women even need 800 more calories than they did before becoming pregnant, according to Lebbing.

Dr. James Sears, co-author of The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

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