Some ideas I have been thinking hard about lately that I would love 
input on. I feel where I am that I am working in a vacuum.
I have been thinking a lot recently about increasing breast milk production.
I read an interesting article about cow lactation a few weeks ago 
(Thanks google alerts!) that said that when a mother cow is producing 
less milk they find her gut PH is low. The cow itself will choose to eat 
more alfalfa hay vs pellets, more fiber. The extra fiber raises the gut 
PH in the cow and her milk supply goes up.
Hmm... One of the things I was thinking about is the Colase that mothers 
get all the time after having a baby. I can't believe this is good for 
gut health but I am not sure. It seems as though it would just make 
things slide through the gut and not promote good absorbtion of 
nutrients. I have been suggesting moms try lots of fiber instead of the 
Colase if they feel they can. This helps with edema as well. Have no 
idea if this will help but it will not hurt. Of course, all of these 
thoughts are for moms that are struggling with milk production.
This lead me to conclude (I know, duh.) that gut health seems to be 
critical to milk production. I was thinking about Domperidone and that 
it is a stomach medicine (gut health?) and it has been proven to help 
with milk production. There was a good article in the JHL last year 
about this.
Finally, the proteins. The more unhealthy your gut is, the leakier it 
is. In other words, things get into the blood stream that shouldn't be 
there. The gut should not have allowed them in. But our guts are not 
working well and all sorts of proteins get into the blood.
I wonder if, ideally, far less protein would be in the  blood stream if 
our gut health was better. And what are the best, easiest ways to help 
mothers improve their gut health? And would this help milk production? 
According to the dairy industry it will.
What do others think?
Thank you!

-- 

Barbara Robertson, MA, IBCLC, RLC
The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor
bfcaa.com

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