Wondering How Often I Need to Eat (25 Weeks Pregnant)

5-6 small meals a day is what nutritionists recommend we all eat all the time.

NO. Not every time the baby kicks... or you'll be eating 40 or 50 times a day here soon.

Baby's schedules tend to be "reversed" when they're born. As we're sleeping they tend to be awake and moving around. When we're awake and moving around they spend most of their time asleep (our movements "rock them to sleep").

Eating the moment you wake up is an old (and true) trick to prevent morning sickness in most women. To the point of many women keeping crackers on the nightstand so they can put something in their mouth before even getting out of bed. If you're not fighting nausea it's not overly necessary to eat right away.

No matter WHEN you eat the placenta is sucking the nutrients out of your body 24/7. It will pull from your bones and organs if the right nutrients aren't present (just like an anorexic's body eats itself to survive). The stream of nutrients varies a lot in composition (depending on what is needed) but it's pretty constant. If the mother is starving the body cuts off the blood supply to the placenta, ending the transmission of nutrients, effectively causing a miscarriage. The starvation has to be fairly advanced for that to happen. The placenta / fetus is pretty parasitical. Doesn't care when you ate last, just yanks what it needs when it needs it from your system. So in extreme cases, in order to protect itself, the body "cuts off" the placenta. You don't have to worry about that... it takes days or longer of not eating for that to happen.

It's been posited (and makes sense) that pregnancy cravings are directly related to what the placenta is yanking from the body. Rare steak is protein &/or iron (spinach will often satisfy a "I wanna hear it moo" red meat cravings), saurkraut & icecream would be salts, fats, calcium, and trace minerals, etc. A woman who is eating a very nutritionally dense diet tends to have a lot fewer cravings than a woman who is eating a more "normal" diet. In either case, however, nutritionists specializing in pregnancy recommend that you follow your cravings.

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You eat when you're hungry, but make sure you get atleast 2,000 calories a day if possible. Baby movement has nothing to do with his/her hunger issue. Stay away from junkfood as much as possible and eat a healthy variety. You do not need to eat upon waking, however, for some women they HAVE to to avoid the horrors of morning sickness.

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Baby's kicks has nothing to do with being hungry. Where have you gotten that idea?
Eat when you hungry. It is your body :))

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Oh my goodness....
Okay, first time mommy, first of all, pregnant or not, we eat when we are hungry. Period. You haven't mentioned nausea so I would assume this is NOT a problem for you. Great!

I'm 20 weeks pregnant and hungry all the time. I eat 3 meals a day...breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I eat these meals when I am hungry. Snacking throughout the day for ME is a must because of my hunger so I nibble throughout the day. I have 3 children and pregnant with # 4 and I have to say that never in my life have I heard of eating only when the baby kicks...This is a first. ; )

BTW: the baby's movement does not indicate he/she is hungry. Shoot, if that was indeed true, I'd be eating every minute of the day!

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Babies move and kick to develop their muscles. My son would always move more at night when I was not active, which I found to be curious so I asked my ped about it. He informed me that during the day when you are active, walking around, etc, that your uterus is moving, thus "rocking" your child so they sleep more. Once you settle down to go to sleep, you stop rocking them to sleep, so they can get more active. It got worse the bigger my belly got. :) (Something to look forward to.)

You do not need to eat every time the baby moves! In reality, you only need to eat about 300 extra calories a day during the second trimester and 450 extra during the third. Eat when you are hungry. (If you get morning sickness, it can be tamed by eating a little something, and protein works best.) I learned the hard way to always eat something - even a piece of toast - with the prenatal vitamin.

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When YOU are hungry. The baby is getting what it needs as long as you are getting what you need.

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Even when you arent pregnant you should eat first thing in the morning as this sets the tone for your metabolism for the rest of the day. Feeling hungry and being hungry are two completely different things. If you feel hungry you have already deprived yourself of food, just like if you feel thirsty it means that you are already dehydrated. Getting in the habit of grazing throughout the day stops you from being hungry so you are less apt to over eat "for pleasure", and your fat cells wont start craving food. When you let yourself get hungry the first place that food goes is to the fat cells that are crying out for food (keep that in mind) and it goes there first before metabolizing to the places it really needs to go. I do believe it is a good idea to force yourself to maybe eat a piece of peanut butter toast in the AM while you get hubby off to work or maybe a quick bowl of instant oatmeal. Your body is a machine in action forming a human being and if you continue to think of it that way you realize you need to keep oiling the parts and keeping it full of fuel and hydration for it all to work properly. When you are pregnant sometimes you lose the appetite urge because the baby is pushing against certain parts and you just feel full most of the time. Try practicing small amounts of good fuel food throughout the day, your brain might not be hungry but your baby machine is :)

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You eat when you are hungry. Make sure you have 3 meals and a few snacks thru the day, plus plenty of water. Babies move and kick, thats what they do and has nothing to do with them being hungry. Not sure where you got that information.

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6 small meals a day is supposed to be best. but who can do that? :)

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Your baby's kicks have nothing to do with hunger. (S)he is being constantly "fed"with the nutrients that are always in your blood thru the umbilical cord. I suggest her becoming more active, kicking, is in response to you being more active, fixing something to eat for your hubby.

You should eat when you're hungry or on the schedule you've fixed for yourself. You are not depriving your baby. I"m not sure that your baby even has a hunger reflex at 25 weeks or the brain to recognize food needs.

My daughter grazes, eating several small amounts of food all day because the baby is sitting high and squishing my daughter's stomach. If she eats a large meal she has heart burn big time. My recommendation to you is to eat as often as you want being sure to eat nutritious food and enough calories.

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eat when you are hungry the baby is probably kicking because you are moving. so it wakes the baby. you will get hungry before the baby does.

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What?! Eat when you are hungry, and make sure what you are eating is substantial. If you haven't eaten in a while and the baby kicks, this has nothing to do with lack of food - your baby is just moving.

Best way to avoid this kind of "advice" you may have fallen prey to, is to fully inform yourself. Definitely buy a couple of books about the biology of pregnancy and prenatal development - "A Child Is Born" is a GREAT one, with beautiful pictures.

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

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eating when you wake is more about controlling nausea. If you are not struggling with sickness, then eat when you normally do. Just listen to your hunger, no need to force feed. You're body will ask for food when it needs it. Your fat reserves will keep your baby from going hungry. Don't over-think it.

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Your baby kicking has nothing to do with it being hungry...babies are moving all the time. In fact, at this point, you should probably be able to feel the baby move at least ten times an hour if you sat down and counted kicks.

Eat what you feel you need to, eat healthy foods and keep hydrated...you don't need to force yourself to eat if you're not hungry...

-M

You should eat when you're hungry. It's not just about depriving the child, it's about depriving yourself - we've all been told how breakfast is the most important meal of the day;) However, if you're not hungry immediately, you're not starving your child. Everyone may say that they're 'eating for 2' but in reality, you only need about 150 extra calories per day - that's about equal to a carton of yogurt. Make sure the calories you eat are healthy calories and just be really conscious of how you feel when you're hungry. Whether pregnant or not, that is how we should all eat - when we're hungry - real hunger not the "i'm bored so suddenly I feel hungry". So long as you're gaining weight in the appropriate amount according to your obgyn, you should be fine. The average is approx. 20-25 lbs.

Your baby kicking does not necessarily indicate hunger. But you should be eating three well rounded meals a day with three snacks. I typically would eat breakfast, a snack before lunch, lunch, a snack before dinner, dinner and snack before bedtime. Make sure what you are eating is quality food, not over processed (bagged, canned or frozen). Processed foods do not have much nutrient content and could be depleting essential nutrients that both your bodies need to maintain good health.

Hi E. - Eat something healthy every two to three hours - it doesn't have to be a lot - just graze throughout the day on fruits/vegetables/whole grains and lean protein. That's really that pattern we should be eating all the time, pregnant or not. What you eat now is going to set your child up for better health for a lifetime. You will really appreciate reading November's TIME magazine cover story for more on the importance of good nutrition in the womb - I can email it to you if you don't have it! If you want to be absolutely sure that your baby is getting the whole food nutrition he/she needs for very healthy development in the womb and beyond, please consider taking Juice Plus fruit and vegetable capsules. It's concentrated fresh, ripe, herbacide/pesticide free produce in juiced and then dehydrated form. I've got a lot of info on the research proving it helps make for healthier babies and children. Just let me know if you would like me to send it to you. In the mean time, you can view the general information on it at wethriveonjuiceplus.com. It will help you and your baby be healthier during and after the pregnancy no matter what you eat (although not a replacement for the actual food, so be sure to graze on healthy choices throughout the day! Dr. William Sears calls Juice Plus a "nutritional seatbelt".