A Candid Look at Weight Issues for Moms and Babies
By Kelly Burgess
Everyone is worried about obesity. The news media trumpets warnings from various health and government agencies about our lifestyles. We’re warned that a large percentage of the adult population is already obese, or, at the very least, overweight, and that obesity is the number one health problem facing children. It’s easy for a pregnant woman to put on the 20 to 30 pounds recommended by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) and then to panic when it doesn’t just melt away as the baby emerges.
Breastfeeding may be the best thing you can do for long-term control of both your weight and your baby’s weight.
By the same token, it’s easy for that new mom to watch as her wiry newborn gives way to a plump, happy infant and worry about “the charts” and if he’s off them or on them and if she’s raising the next generation of overweight kids. This may be especially trying for the breastfeeding mother, because she can’t “see” how much her infant is eating. The good news is that you don’t need to see, because the baby can feel. In fact, breastfeeding may be the best thing you can do for long-term control of both your weight and your baby’s weight.
Baby Cheeks
So your little bundle of joy is now 6 months old and looks more like a little butterball. Your husband isn’t overweight; you’re not overweight—is it something you’re doing wrong?
Relax, says Cindy Curtis, IBCLC and administrator of Breastfeeding Online. She says it’s not unusual at all for breastfed babies to appear “fat,” even though they’re perfectly healthy.
“You’ll sometimes have a mom with an oversupply of milk, and those babies tend to get really big, really fast,” Curtis says. “It’s perfectly normal to be off the charts in infancy. Later on, they even out and come into a normal weight range.”
Curtis points out that she has personal experience in this phenomenon through her two children. At 6 months her son had rolls of fat. On the other hand, her daughter decided one day at age 4 months to just quit nursing. Now, at ages 12 and 14, her son is thin and her daughter tends toward chubbiness. She can’t help but wonder if it would be different if her daughter had nursed longer.
The problem may be, in fact, not that the baby is “off the charts” but that the doctor is relying on “charts” in the first place. They can be misleading when it’s a comparison of bottle-fed and breastfed babies.
“Breastfeeding babies will regulate themselves and eat what they need, and they do gain fast in the first three months,” says Colleen Prorok, IBCLC, and owner of Lactation on Location.
On average, according to Prorok, a breastfed baby will gain an ounce a day in the first three months, and although breastfed babies tend to weigh a little more at 3 months, they tend to weigh a little less at 1 year. “As the baby gets older, the nature of the breast milk changes slightly, and they need to take in fewer ounces and fewer calories,” Prorok says. “Breastfeeding also helps Baby learn hunger signals. When the baby is full, he or she may continue to be at the breast without transferring milk, so nursing meets their suckling needs without them eating more. With bottles, the flow is so easy that they keep swallowing because their mouth is being filled with milk, so they tend to take in more than they need.”
Also, as Curtis points out, nursing mothers don’t tend to encourage their babies to keep taking milk, whereas someone giving a baby a bottle may continue to jiggle the bottle trying to convince Baby to take that last couple of ounces. Therefore, even though Baby is full, he may still be eating. This can set a precedent for ignoring hunger signals that continues through childhood.
Pregnancy Pounds
As mentioned above, ACOG recommends an average weight gain of between 25 and 35 pounds during pregnancy. The chart below, courtesy of ACOG, shows how this weight gain is distributed:
- Baby—7.5 pounds
- Maternal energy stores (fat, protein, and other nutrients)—7 pounds
- Fluid volume—4 pounds
- Breast enlargement—2 pounds
- Uterus—2 pounds
- Amniotic fluid—2 pounds
- Placenta—1.5 pounds
Total = 26 pounds
The total in this case is 26 pounds. Now, I don’t know about everyone else, but I gained 50 pounds with each of my first two children and 30 with my third. I started out 10 pounds underweight. Somehow, I managed to lose it all within the first year—possibly in part due to breastfeeding all three.
According to both Curtis and Prorak, my experience is pretty typical. “Many moms do tend to lose weight more easily when breastfeeding,” Prorak says. “The current thinking is that the body burns more calories making breast milk than a non-nursing mother.”
However, both experts also note an interesting phenomenon: Breastfeeding women tend to hang on to that last 5 or 10 pounds until they quit nursing. Although no one knows why for certain, one practical theory is that the body wants to make sure it has a store of fat to manufacture breast milk—no matter what.
In fact, the recommendations are for a nursing mother to consume between 2,500 and 2,700 calories per day. This is a significant amount when you consider that most weight loss plans usually allow for a maximum of 1,600 calories for a slow, sensible weight loss.
Curtis likes to point out that in some countries, mothers manage to breastfeed on nothing but dirty water and a limited amount of rice every day, and their children are perfectly healthy. It’s when they stop breastfeeding at age 4 or 5 that the children begin having health problems.
Having said that, no one is suggesting that nursing mothers go on the “Survivor” diet. However, it is safe to diet when you’re nursing if you’d like to speed up your weight loss.
Curtis and Prorak both agree that a fad diet or extreme diet, such as an extremely low-carbohydrate diet, is probably not the best choice for a nursing mother. Although it probably won’t hurt the milk supply, it could hurt the quality. More significantly, it could impact the quality of your life. One commonly noted side effect of very low-carb diets is crankiness. That’s not how you want to approach motherhood. Curtis frowns on diets that rely on diet shakes and any other type of severe calorie restrictions for the same reason. In addition, weight loss supplements should never be taken while nursing.
Both experts say that the safest formal diet is Weight Watchers, which has a specific diet for breastfeeding women. Weight Watchers provides a sensible eating plan that allows you to maximize your food quantity while controlling calories.
“After going on Weight Watchers, one girl I was working with told me that she had always thought a serving of spaghetti was a whole plate of spaghetti,” Curtis says. “The great thing about it is that it actually teaches you sensible eating strategies that you can adopt for the long term.”
Any sensible diet along those lines, whether it counts calories or “points,” is safe to try while breastfeeding. There are even books that address the subject, such as Eat Well, Lose Weight While Breastfeeding by Eileen Behan. You should also get your pediatrician’s advice and approval.
Above all, accept the fact that you just had a baby. Enjoy this special time. Eat when you’re hungry, and drink when you’re thirsty. Don’t overdo it, but don’t try to be superwoman either. Supermom is enough.
