Lactnetters,
  First, to introduce myself, I am a graduate student at Cornell University
studying maternal and child nutrition (and fairly new to Lactnet--hello
all)! I wanted to respond to the posts regarding BF and exercise, and
specifically to Nancy Hurst's latest post about the marathoner having
problems BF. I am interested in the issue of exercising while BF, and am
currently not aware of any literature indicating that aerobic exercise has
any negative effect on BF. For instance, Dewey et al found no difference in
milk composition between EBF control moms and EBF (aerobically) exercising
moms (NEJM 330(7):449-453). However, it seems to me that Nancy's mom may be
having trouble BF that may be due to her lifestyle (doing long runs and
working at a fitness center will, no doubt, put serious time constraints on
the time available to BF on-demand). She also sounds like she might have
body image issues (history of anorexia, employed in fitness/nutrition field
which is common in people with preoccupation with food, etc) which may be
resulting in food restriction, leading to problems with milk production.
Just a guess, but I wanted to defend the exercise (being both a marathon and
BF enthusiast)!!  -Julie



Julie A. Schneider Hilson
107 Savage Hall
Division of Nutritional Sciences,
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850