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Breastfeeding Battles the Bulge
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 No. 1 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.
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.
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.
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