Eating well for you and your baby
It’s important to eat healthily after pregnancy to give both you and your baby the energy and nutrition you need. When you’re breastfeeding, the nutrients and energy you eat get passed on to your baby, which makes breastfeeding a tiring but very important activity! If you’re not breastfeeding, you still need all the energy you can get as you run around looking after your new baby and your body begins to heal itself after labour.
How many extra kilojoules do you need when breastfeeding?
The average extra daily energy requirement for breastfeeding is 2000 - 2100kJ (476 - 500Kcal) per day. (this is a 25 - 30% increase for most mums)
This value of 2000kJ for extra daily energy requirement assumes you are fully breastfeeding for the first 6 months and there is no change in your physical activity level.
Once you start weaning you can begin to return to your pre-pregnancy calorie levels.
Keeping to a healthy diet
It’s not just the amount you eat, but what you eat. Many mums find their iron stores run low when they have young babies so make sure you eat plenty of iron rich foods, such as red meat or dark leafy green vegetables (although the iron in vegetables is not as easily absorbed as meat). It’s also important to ensure you eat plenty of whole grains, cereals, fresh fruits and other vegetables. Eat vitamin C containing foods such as vegetables, fruit and fruit juices with meals to help the absorption of iron. Avoid drinking tea with iron containing meals because this will reduce the absorption of the iron. And try to get plenty of protein and calcium too.
Eating healthily will give you and your baby the energy and nutrients you both need. And of course you can still have the odd treat!