I'm b/f and pretty sure I'm not eating enough. Give me some examples of how to get 2500 calories a day please?

[gaelicsheep]

By way of example, before dinner this evening I had eaten, since dinner last night:

two rounds of white toast and honey
half a banana
the crusts off DS's teatime slice of bread
a few raisins
some crumbs of flapjack
two mouthfuls of DS's omelette

I'm sure this is pretty normal amongst mums, but I'm getting really tired with the b/f and I suspect this could be why. So please, food gurus, what can I eat throughout the day that is quick and easy to keep my energy up?

Are you not feeling hungry?

Why aren't you eating meals?

Is it finding the time that's the problem? Or lack of appetite?

Sorry, that's a lot of questions and no answers but am not sure what's happening.

just go for the bigger option

a whole banana, lots of raisins, a couple of flapjacks and some protein for your lunch

yes, are you too knackered to fancy eating?

A couple of chocolate bars....

How I love breastfeeding, gives me an excuse to indulge!

Porridge or boiled egg and toast for breakfast
soup and cheese/turkey/houmous sandwiches for lunch
omlette/baked pots/pasta and sauce for supper

Plus snacks like you are eating, but as well as proper meals, rather than instead of.

That really isn't enough, even when not BF... try making sandwiches the night before (or if you have a partner, get them to do it for you) and put them in the fridge so you can just grab them with one hand without having to make them. Or pasta salad - anything which doesn't need heating up, can be made ahead, put in fridge if necessary, and eaten with one hand. Malt loaf, you can buy it pre-sliced. A WHOLE banana!! A WHOLE flapjack. Cereal or cereal bars. You need to keep your strength and the quality of your milk up. (It's a long time since I had mine, so someone likely to come along and say my suggestions aren't the "in thing" for nursing mothers - but hopefully you'll get some other responses)

oh, and so you did whilst I was typing!

It doesn't sound very much. Why didn't you make an omelette for yourself too?

What do you like? Write a fantasy list & ask your DP to bring it home! Mine would be: nice salad, (those layered ones with sweetcorn, carrots etc.) prawns, avocadoes, melons, nice bread, variety of nice cheese, pickle, roast ham.

I would try to avoid empty calories, such as cakes. Slow-burn carbs are better. Banana - good. What about peanut butter? I love toasted muffins driping with butter & peanut butter...mmmm

Finding time and being distracted mostly. It's all I can do to get DS a meal, let alone sit down and eat with him myself. I am usually preparing food (in fact doing anything at all) to the accompaniment of screaming from DD (17 weeks) and she inevitably needs seeing to in some way or another, so I just don't get around to having anything myself.

When DH goes out (he's at home quite a lot) he'll quite often get back and I'll realise I haven't even had a drink of water, let alone anything to eat, the whole time. DH made me toast this morning. The rest of my list was finishing off food uneaten by DS, or just picking at something that was handy at the time.

Also I don't usually feel that hungry, but I'll suddenly start feeling really rough late afternoon - really tired or light headed - and then I'll look back and realise I've barely eaten all day.

I found it much easier to graze through the early weeks, never had the energy or the time to eat a full meal.

• Packs of nuts / seeds. Cashews are good, you can nibble them one handed if you open the pack in advance.

• Snack packs of crackers; Jacobs do boxes of crackers in packs of three.

• Mini milky ways. Enough said

• Fromage frais / mini jelly pots. Easy to eat, you don't have to think about them.

• Dried fruit. Similar to nuts, very easy to snack on.

That's all I can think of right now. Just to add - don't worry about affecting your milk supply or anything, its more about keeping your energy levels up :)

Quality of milk won't be an issue but poor gaelicsheep's health and energy levels might be.

Is your thyroid okay? Iron okay?

I can tell you what I did when bfing on demand...

Big breakfast with lots of sustenance. Usually porridge plus fruit of toast.

Lunch dh made before he went to work and put in the fridge. Usually a sandwich or cold pasta salad or something. No heating required.

Dinner was also a lot of quick and easy stuff, especially stuff that I'd batch cooked. Rice and pasta were common. As were jacket potatoes.

We had lots of snacks in like crackers, cheese, yoghurts, fruit, breadsticks, flapjack, cereal bars etc. Quick and easy and likely to sustain.

Also make sure you drink plenty. That will help your appetite.

And smoothies are brilliant too.

Oh and soups. Soup is brilliant. Stick it in a mug if you need to.

Oh, and DH doesn't eat properly either, so getting him to make me something while he does something himself isn't really an option. In fact the only way DH eats properly is if I make him something. Bit of a Catch 22 situation at the moment.

Guess I hoped loads of you would come on and say - oh god, I exist on one Ryvita a day - you'll be fine!

Keep a bottle of water with you. Things like soup and smoothies and fruit/veg will help with your fluid intake.

You really need to make sure you're drinking more. Dehydration is lousy when you're bfing. And happens quite quickly.

Any reason why DH can't make food?

I used to prioritise time when dd was asleep/happy. Make food, quick, easy, simple food and then sleep. I would eat it while she was awake/bfing. My world narrowed down to slotting in food and sleep between childcare. Everything else could wait.

I can tell you that a box of mint matchmakers has 2000 calories.

Seriously though, can you get DH to cook, make yourself packed lunchy type stuff?

And drink loads

Good lord, that really doesn't seem like much at all. I'm also BFing and am constantly eating. It's not always the healthiest stuff but I can't cope with feeling empty and shaky.

Today, I've eaten cereal and blueberries, 11/2 toasted bagels spread with marmite, 1 1/2 bananas (DD ate the other half), cheese & baked beans on a piece of toast, a kitkat, 6 Jaffa cakes, a small pack of choc buttons (bought to aid DS's potty training... Oops...) and then pizza for dinner (was meant to be risotto but that got canceled in favour of takeaway when DD decided to resist going to bed).

It is hard, I know - but snacking on cereal, bananas (and chocolate) doesn't require much effort (just a bit of time to eat....) Also, when you're cooking for your DC, can't you make an extra portion for you? So, today, for example, you could have had a whole portion of omelette rather than a couple of bites.

Ah, see it's the asleep/happy bit we have a problem with. She's very rarely asleep. When if she's ever happy, by herself, I'm usually dealing with DS in one way or another, or trying to get myself washed and dressed. DH is doing alot of the housework thankfully or god knows what would happen.

DH is perfectly capable of preparing food, he just won't eat. I'm always getting at him for it. He'll go through the whole day with about 10 coffees, 10 fags, a few biscuits, the odd slice of toast.. and that's it. I always get dinner for us, which one of us eats one handed, but tonight, for example, he didn't want that either! (I had fish fingers, chips and beans - not great but at least it's food). And he wonders why he's always ill! What a pair eh?

What you have eaten since dinner last night is less than what I have eaten since dinner tonight.

No wonder I am fat curvy.

All common sense advice. I'm sorry I'm just feeling a bit down and having a big moan.

Its much more important that you both eat properly than the housework is done, you need your energy to look after your very young DCs.

The suggestions on this thread are all easy to make and easy to eat too, see if you can work something out with DH in terms of getting some supper on the table (even if you have to eat it with one hand/feeding baby/with interruptions etc.

Yes you're right. I was just saying to DH that he's going to perhaps have to start making me stuff during the day, because I just can't get around to it until at least one of the DCs is in bed for the night.

I should perhaps have been clearer btw, I do eat dinner/supper - usually pasta or something on toast, so I'm not totally starving. But yes, energy levels are a real problem. I will try to take on board the very sensible suggestions.

Money is a bit of an issue as well, especially at the moment with me on maternity leave, so I do find it hard to justify spending loads on snacks - and it does mount up. But it's important, so we'll have to try.

Sorry to be blunt, but I think you just need to take responsibility for yourself. Primary jobs are look after yourself and your DC's.

Everything else is a bonus.

Eat whatever your DS does, but actually a portions worth. I reckon you could fit a whole omlette in your mouth

I was in a similar situation (around the time LO didn't put weight on one week) and I found it was all a mental thing.

Went straight to the supermarket and brought lots of easy to eat foods.

DS is 20 months and there are still days when I find it hard to prioritise eating, which I think is what you're doing. I find it's often the thinking about what to have that's more time consuming than actually preparing it so making yourself a quick list of breakfasts, snacks and lunched should help.

But as far as actual food suggestions go a bowl of cereal's a cheap and quick snack as are crumpets and toasted tea cakes. Yum...I often make a big bowl of pasta salad to eat over a couple of days. Sardines on toast are also quick and cheap.

Wish I had a problem prioritising eating ! My whole life is spent thinking/planing and cooking my next meal - everything else comes after that !!