Extra calories?

[Sprk]

My hv and mw both bp mentioned the need to eat extra while bf. But geez! I'm eating more than when I was pg. I'm always hungry! In fact, I'm kinda wishing I had some pizza right now lol. What is going on? This can't be normal. I didn't gain weight during my pg (which is fine because I'm overweight as is). Should I be worried? Should I give in to the food? I'm doing my best to be reasonable - but it's driving me crazy.

 

[Pin badge]

I am ravenous too lol! It's starting to taper off a bit now DD is 4 months though. All the advice I read says you need about 500 extra cals if you are EBF, apparently it is important to have them in order to maintain your supply and keep you feeling well. (As well as you can feel on 4 hours sleep a night )
I now take a breastfeeding vitamin and my 500 extra cals...I've found if I don't have the extra I feel a bit wobbly and end up so hungry that I want to stuff myself with biscuits and cakes so instead I try to have extra fruit, yogurt, whole meal toast with peanut butter, porridge oats (flapjack counts as oats right... ) etc.
For me I was amazed to still be losing weight steadily without really trying, give in and enjoy the chance to have that little bit extra! Xx

 

[CamFi]

you need more food when breastfeeding than when you're pregnant! LO is bigger and growing faster than when they were inside you, and you're still their only source of nutrition.

So do eat, but also watch your weight. My hunger signals went haywire when I got pregnant, so I weighed myself every week to make sure I wasn't putting on weight too fast/slow, and I kept it up once I was breastfeeding to make sure I wasn't putting on weight.

I actually found it's now that I'm having issues as she's tapering off the breastfeeding, so I'm having to reduce my food intake too and finding it hard to judge how much I need to reduce by.

 

[SR35]

Same here, I am always snacking between meals but trying to keep it fairly healthy and good for baby, so things like carrot sticks with hummus, rice cakes, oat cakes, Wholegrain cereal bars, fruit, yoghurt. I always take snacks to bed with me to have during the early morning feeds too. For main meals I find that things like wholemeal bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc fill me up quite well, and anything with oats in, so porridge, oatibix, muesli etc for breakfast. I also take the pregnacare breastfeeding daily vitamins.

 

[Maud]

In the first few months I was ravenous all the time and had to snack at every feed! I used to take breakfast bars to bed for early feeds and would keep multiple snacks around (healthy and unhealthy) during the day. My body has clearly adjusted to feeding now as I no longer get the desire to eat or drink lots when feeding. Feeding in the early weeks/months is exhausting on so many levels I personally believe that if your body is telling you it's hungry then you should eat. I weighed myself weekly and the weight dropped off at first. Once it started going back on I was a bit more restricted on the cakes, biscuits & cheese and took her for some longer walks and I now weigh less than before I got pregnant.

 

[Sprk]

Thanks for all the replies. Because I didn't gain weight during pregnancy, I actually lost weight after the birth. I never really had much of an appetite and now I'm the total opposite lol. I just had a baguette, scotch egg, and small bowl of ice cream for lunch. I think it's caused by my under eating (not intentional....just v tired and busy) in the morning and evening. I've ordered a load of fruit (would love some yogurt but am lactose intolerant) for snacking during the day. Hopefully that will help keep the ice cream craving at bay lol.