If you need 500 extra calories to nurse a newborn, do you need more calories to nurse older (9+ m) babies?
I mean… does your extra calorie needs stay the same throughout the course of breastfeeding, or does it increase/decrease with the baby’s age?
Or simply put, do you need to eat more to be able to continue nursing older babies?
It is always important for a nursing mother to eat enough to keep herself full and her energy up, but that doesn’t mean she needs extra calories, she just needs to be eating the right foods.
“Women on even very low calorie diets usually make enough milk, at least until the mother’s calorie intake becomes critically low for a prolonged period of time. Generally, the baby will get what he needs. Some women worry that if they eat poorly for a few days this also will affect their milk. There is no need for concern. Such variations will not affect milk supply or quality. It is commonly said that women need to eat 500 extra calories a day in order to breastfeed. This is not true. Some women do eat more when they breastfeed, but others do not, and some even eat less, without any harm done to the mother or baby or the milk supply. The mother should eat a balanced diet dictated by her appetite. Rules about eating just make breastfeeding unnecessarily complicated.”
http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/all_about_myths2.html#M2_1
No matter whether baby is 2 weeks or 2 years old and nursing, mom just needs to eat enough to satisfy her appitite, not overload herself on extra calories.
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