One of the mothers in my bf. group has just phoned me with an
extraordinary story. Has anyone else heard of anything like this?
        Last time I saw her, she was worried about her baby's green bms.
which she said looked like spinach. Sometimes they were really dark green,
with even darker green flecks. Since she has a very abundant milk supply, I
suggested bf. on only one side, to make sure that the baby gets all the
hindmilk. In the course of the discussion it also turned out that she drinks
an enormous amount - about 4 litres a day.
        Anyway, she has just phoned me to tell me that bf. only one side
didn't help, but what has really made a difference has been cutting down her
own water intake. With great difficulty, she is trying to limit herself to 2
litres a day, or at any rate, not more than three. As soon as she started
doing this, the baby's bms. went back to normal, and have now been normal
for two weeks.
        She said she has always drunk a great deal of water, but when the
baby was born, it was OK. The problem started about six weeks ago, when the
weather turned cold, but she continued drinking the same amount. Evidently,
when it was hot (and in Rome it gets pretty hot in summer!) she must have
lost a lot of the liquid through perspiration.
        I did wonder whether she has some hidden problem which gives her
this need to drink so much water. She thinks not - she says drinking a lot
is just a habit. It seems to be a bit like smoking a cigarette - the need to
hold something in her hand. Apparently, when she's hungry, she often drinks
a glass of water instead, if she doesn't feel like making herself something.
                                        Anna Lowenstein
                                        Zagarolo, Italy