I want to respond to a few points in Marie's post.



Personally, I don't use "block feeding", so I cannot really comment
much on it. I try not to use symptom control anymore than necessary. I
do go for comfort as a temporary measure, but have never been convinced
that this method works very well, especially with young babies.



I also think that the quest for hind-milk has become an obsession that
is damaging to physiologically normal feeding. Everytime I hear about
"hind-milk" I cringe. It is as if we think there is that tiny elusive
volume of "good" milk somewhere just out of reach.



I find that mothers whose bodies produce an oversupply tend to, in a
sense, "seek their own level" in spite of any intervention, negotiating
the road back to the maintenance level (oversupply). I don't bother
with most of the traditional oversupply management approaches for that
reason. Breasts that need to hyper-lactate will usually do so. (The
exception is when mom has purposefully hyper-lactated for a sick or
compromised baby--then she can usually get things under control)



I definitely address OAMER, which as Marie notes tends to happen with
only the first MER, by using magnesium. Women who have inflammation
tend to need magnesium. Women with gut damage are prone to magnesium
deficiency. Calcium contracts smooth muscle, magnesium relaxes it. As
Marie notes, the breasts need to calm down--they need magnesium. I
liken the OAMER to any other smooth muscle depleted of mag--it goes
into spasm. The 
best treatment for muscle spasm is mag.



I do not know if the comment about "blaming the mother" is directed
towards me, but if that is how someone sees recognizing the mother's
need for gut healing, then so be it. As I have said before, we are the
most overfed, malnourished people on earth. We are a culture of people
suffering from inflammation and gut damage in droves. Ignoring this
serves no one and makes for sick mothers and babies.



I think it is an oversimplification to say that lactose overload is the
problem for all babies with damaged guts. Even if this were true, then
the question should be, why the lactose overload? And if lactose
overload is the cause of the damage, then the baby will have a leaky
gut and will present with food allergies anyway. I have seen so many
babies with damaged guts whose mothers have marginal or insufficient
milk supplies that the connection to lactose overload appears
oversimplified to me. 



The comparison to IBS is perfectly valid. People who have IBS have
inflammation in the gut. B/c they have a leaky gut, they have food
allergies. IBS, celiac, etc create a high risk for colon cancer. The
gut has to be healed. Mothers with these conditions have babies with
food allergies.



I am not sure that anyone would ignore the baby's symptoms. My approach
is to remove allergens (preferably mom's and baby's), use probiotics in
mother and baby to accelerate healing, use castor oil compresses for
the baby’s comfort and healing of inflam
m
ation, have bodywork for structural support and use other gut healing
management as needed, including digestive enzymes or betain HCL. Most
of my clients who take gut healing seriously will incorporate energetic
healing modalities such as EFT (www.efofree.com) and homeopathy. 



Marie said:

"But please take a look at these mom's diets and not for allergens (I
don't believe that so many babies could be truly allergic). Look for
the presence of too much simple carbohydrate and too little fat. Women
with a diet high in simple carbohydrate have been shown to have a high
lactose load in their milk, where lactose goes water goes. Increase the
available fat in the diet (through supplementation if need be), tell
moms to avoid a simple carbohydrates and junk food and not to skip
meals. I've been supplementing mom's diets with EFA's for the past 7
years and along with a few additional treatment measures, it works I
recommend as a supplement : Flax seed (800 mg): Take 2 capsules three
times a day and Evening Primrose oil (500 mg): Take 2 capsules three
times a day. (Total dose is 1600 mg flax and 1000 mg evening primrose
each time.)(I don't use fish oil)"



Of course they can be truly allergic. Gut damage creates allergens.
Mothers with leaky guts pass antigens and proteins into their blood
streams. Yes, underneath the allergens is the cause--inflammation--and
lactose overload may well contribute to inflammation. But, lactose
overload would also a response to inflammation. American women rarely
eat too lit
tle
 fat--they eat too little of the right fat and too much of the wrong
fat. Trans fats create inflammation while EFAs and MCFAs are
anti-inflammatory and nourishing to the body. EPO has been used to
treat breast inflammation for a very long time. So, the reason that the
fats you use are healing is that they are treating inflammation, When
you tell women to reduce simple carbs, you typically mean foods like
pasta, baked goods, bread and crackers. Grains are the most
inflammatory food that most people eat, other than sugar and animal
milk products. Women will inherently reduce their intake of gluten and
sugar when they follow these suggestions. There is a known correlation
between celiac disease and overproduction of prolactin. There is a
correlation between gut damage and all autoimmune conditions (which are
inflammatory).



OTOH, telling moms to avoid simple carbs and junk food is not useful
for most women, b/c most have no idea what constitutes a simple carb or
junk food (roasted nuts and juice are junk food) and cow milk must be
eliminated. Further, women need to be instructed to eat only
nutrient-dense foods, b/c only nutrient-dense foods heal the gut.
Nourish the body and it begins to heal



As for fluids, not only does water follow lactose, but water follows
inflammation. The body attempts to dilute toxins and antigens by
holding onto excess fluids. When someone eliminates allergens, the
immediate weight loss they experience is the loss of that fluid. People
who look "puffy" have food allergi
es=2
0and are suffering from inflammation.



Joel Fuhrman explains that the average American has no experience of
true hunger signs. When we eat foods that are harmful to our bodies, we
begin an immediate detox. That detox is the feeling the avg person
experiences as hunger. The reason she believes it is hunger is b/c is
stops when she eats more food. But, the reality is that the body cannot
digest and detox at the same time, so in giving the body the chore to
digest, we stop the detox process. We feel better, b/c detox feels
terrible and so we eat every time we begin to detox. When we eat foods
that do not cause harm to our bodies, we do not feel as "hungry" b/c
there is little to detox and we are not driven to eat. I do not believe
babies are any different, except that their need to suckle for comfort
adds an additional impetus to feed.



The other thing is that when I look at compensations, I look for the
wisdom in the situation. Oversupply may well be a compensatory
response. The body compensates for its own benefit--and the infant is
usually included within the mother's sphere of well-being. So, I want
to know how an oversupply benefits the dyad. Does a mother whose body
is in an inflammatory state create an oversupply for some protective
reason? 



For example, oversupply does benefit babies who manage to remove milk
efficiently. I also find that many babies whose mothers seem to have an
oversupply simply have a supply that the baby, who is TTd or has structural20restrictions cannot manage. Suddenly, that oversupply is no
longer a problem once the baby can manage the flow. 



I certainly don't know all of the answers here, but I do know that
inflammation leads to hormonal imbalance and I am not convinced that
there is anything going on that we could call an oversupply syndrome.
Inflammation may well lead to the opposite set of problems, resulting
in undersupply. So, should we think about some kind of inflammatory
response syndrome? Except that I think naming things goes against my
nature--it is allopathic in nature and often undermines healing. So,
I'm not sure how I feel about that.



Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA

Intuitive Parenting Network LLC




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