Barb -

I used to see this (women freaking out about decreasing milk supply) every
summer! Every year I would forget that I saw it in the previous years as
well, and wonder if it was an epidemic, some strange mass hysteria...Then
I'd remember that I see this all the time in the really hot weather.

I concluded (maybe wrongly - have no research to back this up, only
anecdotal experience) that perhaps this happens because the mothers aren't
drinking enough water in the extreme heat & humidity to compensate for what
they're losing in perspiration, etc. I think that moms' "forgetting" to
drink enough is pretty common, especially when they may be very busy in the
summer with older kids home from school & on the go a lot to beaches,
playgrounds, whatever. Whether or not there's anything to this theory, women
have done much better with milk supply after I've reminded them that they
need to keep drinking a lot - enough so that they are urinating every 3
hours or so and that their urine is dilute.

Just my own experience from WIC, where the women are neither lazy nor
stupid, but are quite often frazzled and exhausted from busy lives!

Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY

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