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Eating Disorders for Two

Helping the Anorexic or Bulimic Mom-to-be

By Laura Paul

Once a woman has an eating disorder, she will require maximum support, counseling and treatment. Part of her treatment will be medical monitoring to make sure the baby is safe, such as checking her blood pressure, pulse and electrolytes. He says a woman who gains 20 to 25 pounds is in a normal range.

An even less recognized form of eating disorder is exercise bulimia, when a person uses extreme, compulsive exercise as a way to burn off calories. "It's so secretive," Dr. Jahraus says. "The clues again would be somebody saying, 'I just feel so fat and ugly; I'm going to have to get on an exercise program.' You can't find them at home. They are out working out at the health club. They might skip going out with friends or they might skip going out with the spouse for dinner or something to make sure they get their workout in."

Dr. Jahraus says following birth, women with eating disorders have a higher incidence of postpartum depression. They have more problems breastfeeding, including insufficient lactation and a greater likelihood of miscarriage or birth defects. While eating and then exercising excessively might seem harmless compared to self-induced starvation, Dr. Jahraus says all eating disorders are dangerous to the child. "I always tell my patients, it's a calorie in, calorie out thing," he says. "If you have insufficient calories coming in to support the amont of activity you are doing, you are going to end up losing weight and that causes long-term malnutrition. When you are starved, your baby is starved. It's going to be eventually reflected. In the beginning it takes from your body what it needs but when it can no longer get that, that baby is going to suffer and it gets into a state called intrauterine growth retardation."

Want to see more?

• Recovery and Risk: Coping with an Eating Disorder During Pregnancy
• Fit and Pregnant: How to Have a Healthy Pregnancy
• Fitness Fanatic? Why You May Need to Tone Down Your Workout
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