Hi All,
I have no idea as to whether or not ALL teen moms porduce less milk, but from
personal observation I can say this:

The teens that I have worked with have been as young as 13.  The 13 yr old
did BF for a short time, and had enough milk for her baby, however, she
wanted to go out and play with her friends and weaned so that Grandam could
feed baby.  I also worked with a 15 yr old who had plenty of milk for her
baby.  When she developed a particular nasty case of thrush (and I mean BAD!)
she wrked very hard to pump and give her baby only EBM (Nipps were in too bad
of shape to BF from the source).  She finally weaned because she had to go to
work and school, and neither place would let her pump when she needed to (and
in the case of work, not at all).

I don't think it is that they "Can't" produce the needed amount of milk.  I
think a lot of it has to do with maturity, and education.  I have found that
most young teens with new babies don't realize how often the baby needs to be
fed, and therefore loses her milk supply due to inadequate feeding.  And they
do seem to wean earlier than adults, but again, they have to go to school and
work and their peers often harrass them about pumping and BF, so they wean
from peer pressure.  Which is really sad, because some of these young moms
really wanted to BF for a long time, they just couldn't handle the pressure
any more.

Now one thing I have been thinking about lately, is what about younger girls
who have not had not fully developed their breasts yet?  They can get
pregnant, and many do (how sad.).  What happens to their breast development?
 Does it speed up in order to nourish the baby, or does it continue to
develope as normal?  If it is the latter, then I would guess that the mom who
has not had full development would NOT be able to produce a full milk supply
simply because not everything is there or mature enough yet.  Again, I don't
know anything about this, so, can anyone answer this?

Jay
Who is sad to have to work with so many teen moms.