6/12/96

Dear Joanna,
I worked with mother who was anorexic as adolescent and young adult.  She had
difficulty conceiving and had 4 IVFs before finally conceiving twins.  She
weighed 105 lb. before conception and gained to 130 lb in pregnancy.  When I
saw her pp at less than 7 days, she weighed 95 lb.  She ate no fat, except
for eating 10+ caramel candies per day.  She continued to carefully monitor
her diet and was still concerned about gaining weight.  She was under a
psychiatrist's care for her problems.

She, too, had difficulty producing milk.  Second stage lactogenesis was
delayed and her babies required supplementation.  Of course, having twins was
another complication in this case.  She eventually DCd breastfeeding because
she "felt tied-down and was concerned that she would need to eat more food
than she was comfortable with in order to provide quality milk for her
babies".

From a slightly different perspective, I am still interested in hearing from
others re my posting of last week about any research or published info on the
effects, if any, of infant feeding problems and later development of feeding
disorders in adolescents or young adults.  This question has been asked of me
by at least 3 of my clients in recent years and I have always reassured them
that it is unlikely there would be a predispostion toward feeding disorders
such as anorexia or bulimia because their babies had feeding/sucking problems
as infant.  However, some references in this area would be appreciated.

Anna Utter, IBCLC
Gaithersburg, MD
[log in to unmask]