Nursing a toddler

  • There is a lot of info out there about how many more calories you need to eat when your baby is exclusively breastfeeding, or when they move to solids and are between 6-12 months old. My child is almost two years old and just nurses 1-2 x per day and I wonder how to adjust my "baseline" caloric needs for this? I feel like it must be something... but not as much as for a child under 12 months. Does anyone know where to find info on this?
    Thanks!
  • A good estimate is 20 calories burned for every ounce of breast milk. It's going to depend on how many ounces you think he is getting in those feedings.
  • Thanks! Now to figure out how much he's getting...
  • Once DS was down to only a couple nursing sessions a day at around 2 years old, I didn't worry so much about eating extra calories. Maybe I should have? Of course his nursing sessions were only a few minutes each so I don't think he was really getting all that much to begin with.
  • I count my few nursings a day as bounus calories burned!!

    Christie