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Mothers need to be encouraged to drink plenty of fluids.
One simple way to ensure this is to drink 8 oz.
of water, juice, or milk while they are nursing.
They need to eat their routine diet and an estimated extra 500 kcal/day.
This will allow mothers enough nutrition to breast
feed the baby and to gradually lose weight over six months of breast feeding.
Lovelady studied overweight lactating mothers at 4 weeks
post-partum and assigned them to two groups. One group had their
usual dietary intake, while the second group had a reduction of
intake of 500 Kcal a day and exercise. The mothers in the second
group had greater weight loss and greater fat loss with no effect on
infant growth (
Lovelady, 2000
).
Mothers should be encouraged to rest while their baby is resting
because they will be up at night feeding him or her.
Most breastfed babies are genuinely hungry every 2 to 3 hours
and are unlikely to sleep any longer than that.
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