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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Advice from a True Expert

So I saw the breastfeedng medicine doc yesterday. She examined both Zach and I. Zach is tongue-tied. His frenulum is thin in the front, so they would usually just snip it in the office, but his gets thicker as it goes back, so she wasn't comfortable. She said he had a great, strong, coordinated suck and all is well there, so if was worried about it, I could follow up with an ENT doc, but she didn't think it would impact breastfeeding at all.

In her opinion, my reduced supply is due to many little things. Stress: notice I didn't have any supply issues until the spina bifida scare. Sleep deprivation: the issue got worse when he started going through his little growth spurts and I started getting less and less sleep. And when I started to take action to increase my supply, myefforts were useless because I started taking progesterone birth control pills, getting even less sleep and more stress because of work. So I have a plan.

Continue the Fenugreek. We don't seem to be having any side effects from it. It's safe, so why stop?
Stop the birth control pills. For now, John will have to revert back to behaving like a pimply-faced teen nervously asking for Trojans that are behind the pharmacy counter.
Continue nursing and pumping as often as I can.
Add a daily bowl of outmeal to my diet.
More sleep.
Back to yoga. It is the only thing that has ever been able to relax my high-strung self. And daily walks.
And the last part? Well, this is a little worrisome. She prescribed Reglan. Designed for reflux, it was found to have the side effect of increasing Prolactin secretion in the body, which is the hormone needed to make milk. Thus increasing supply in most all who use it. It has even been used to induce lactation in adoptive mothers. But it has some nasty neurological side effects severe enough that the FDA has made the manufacturer put a black box warning on the label. These are seen more with longer periods of use, and she is only having me use it for one month, during which they will call and check on me often. The risks also increase with a history of certain medical conditions, of which I have none. So I am gambling a bit with my brain, but the risk is calculated and most all of the side effects (if experienced, even) reverse when treatment is stopped.
So that is the plan. Let's see if it works.

2 comments:

  1. Of all things - I have the opposite problem - over supply. I'll be posting it about it later this week. I never realized how many challenges I'd face with breastfeeding. I'm glad things are going better for you.

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  2. Wanna switch positions? This has certainly been a challenge!

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