Calling all Breastfeeding mummies!

jfluchere

Thank you all for breastfeeding. You are giving your babies the best possible start to life. Make sure you are eating real, whole foods and getting plenty of saturated fat. That is the main ingredient in breast milk and good for a growing baby!!

Stay away from processed foods and chemically processed vegetable oils! All those chemical ingredients and bad PUFAs will end up in your milk and in your baby!!

Yes!!!

shalinimunjal

My baby is 20 months old and she nurses in the evening and at night..so she's nursing 3-4 times a day. I hadn't thought of giving myself calories because she eats full solid meals and drinks whole milk during the day when she's at the sitter's. I lost weight initially but it has stalled now...no loss for almost 2weeks. Glad to see others are nursing toddlers here!! Feel free to add me.

jfcameron23

My doctor told me 1 ounce burns about 20 calories.

CMmrsfloyd

My daughter is 18 months and nurses about 6-8 times day still. I haven't been changing my allowance because I hadn't thought of it!

I don't know how many calories I am burning, but I am not losing. Thank you for posting this question! Now I need to try to figure out how many calories she is helping me burn.

Cheers!

Pleased to know I'm not the only one still breastfeeding an 18 month old! He nurses a lot still also. Hoping he grows out of it soon!

On topic- I don't give myself the cals if I feel I don't need them but if I'm hungry I'll dip into them and I use the night time only feeds option in the tracker. Think it's about 170 cal.

My little guy just weaned at 21 months. It got down so low the last few months that I stopped accounting for the breastfeeding - he was only usually nursing once or twice a day, some days it might be 4 or 5 times if he was having a rough day but then some day's he'd skip a day, too. On the days that he was really high-needs, I often allowed myself an extra snack of 100-200 calories and just didn't bother logging it. LOL

Could someone pls tell me how we add breast feeding to our calorie intake.. is it under food or exercise?? sorry i just can't find it!

When you go into your food diary, click 'add food' just like you do to log your food, only in the search box type in 'breastfeeding'. Several options pop up in the list, they are mainly user-entered so check the 'nutritional info' for the ones that sound like what you need and choose one that seems right. Some are listed as exclusive and give you 500-520 calories, some are listed as 'mom of older baby' or something like '3-5 times per day' and give around 200-300 calories. There's at least one in there that bumps up your protein goal, too.

My doctor told me 1 ounce burns about 20 calories.

Yep, and for any mamas that are pumping, you can actually account for it by the ounce in your food diary - there are one or two options I've seen where you enter it in by the number of ounces and it gives you 20 calories per ounce. :-)

AmyJo527

My daughter is almost a year old and still breastfeeds frequently throughout the night and day, as well as eating quite a bit of solid food. I allow myself 300 extra calories a day, and I have been averaging a 1-2 lb loss per week. I have heard that any breastfeeding mom, whether exclusively breastfeeding or not, shouldn't drop below 1800 calories daily.

0AmyMarie0

I commend you for even doing this!! When my daughter was breastfeeding (2 years) I could NOT cut back on calories and lose weight. My hormones would kick in and tell me to EAT EAT EAT. I was starving all the time!

unco12

My daughter is 18 months and nurses about 6-8 times day still. I haven't been changing my allowance because I hadn't thought of it!

I don't know how many calories I am burning, but I am not losing. Thank you for posting this question! Now I need to try to figure out how many calories she is helping me burn.

Cheers!

Pleased to know I'm not the only one still breastfeeding an 18 month old! He nurses a lot still also. Hoping he grows out of it soon!

On topic- I don't give myself the cals if I feel I don't need them but if I'm hungry I'll dip into them and I use the night time only feeds option in the tracker. Think it's about 170 cal.

My little guy just weaned at 21 months. It got down so low the last few months that I stopped accounting for the breastfeeding - he was only usually nursing once or twice a day, some days it might be 4 or 5 times if he was having a rough day but then some day's he'd skip a day, too. On the days that he was really high-needs, I often allowed myself an extra snack of 100-200 calories and just didn't bother logging it. LOL

Could someone pls tell me how we add breast feeding to our calorie intake.. is it under food or exercise?? sorry i just can't find it!

When you go into your food diary, click 'add food' just like you do to log your food, only in the search box type in 'breastfeeding'. Several options pop up in the list, they are mainly user-entered so check the 'nutritional info' for the ones that sound like what you need and choose one that seems right. Some are listed as exclusive and give you 500-520 calories, some are listed as 'mom of older baby' or something like '3-5 times per day' and give around 200-300 calories. There's at least one in there that bumps up your protein goal, too.

My doctor told me 1 ounce burns about 20 calories.

Yep, and for any mamas that are pumping, you can actually account for it by the ounce in your food diary - there are one or two options I've seen where you enter it in by the number of ounces and it gives you 20 calories per ounce. :-)

thanks so much for your help!

granolagrl85

Way to go for giving your little ones the nutrition nature intended! I breastfed my daughter for 4.5 years. I was lightly active when she was small and exclusively nursing (until 12 months) and gradually decreased my calories to 1200 to lose 1lb a week without it damaging my supply.

granolagrl85

Wow! Those babies were eating a lot! My daughter had a few bottles of formula at 10 months old while she stayed with my mom for a weekend. She drank 16 oz in a 24/hr period.

blueblueberries

I'm breast feeding my 22 month old day and night although it's not 100% essential as at this age she has cows milk and 3-4 meals a day. I have 1000-1200 calories a day, and exercise an hour each day.

Shayztar

I breast feed my 10 month old baby and log it under food as breast feeding - child eats other food. I'm given 300 extra calories. When I first started MFP I didn't know I could log it but a friend showed me how. My Bubba breast feeds for comfort on top of food so I know he helps me burn at LEAST 300 calories. I do eat back those calories because before I started doing it, I found myself very hungry, and it wasn't just the new diet talking. Once I ate the extra 300 cals, I was satisfied. I would rather use those calories to eat healthy foods to make my milk just that much more healthy for the little guy anyway. I mean, if he's eating all my vitamins and nutrients, I need to take care of me too.