Dear Lactnetters,

I received an e-mail from a former client today.  Her baby is 14 months
old.  Not interested in solids. I have permission to post the following from
her.  Any information on polycythemia and Vitamin D levels in breastfeeding
mother would be appreciated.  We live in sunny Georgia, USA.

I* have a couple of nursing questions for you because of some recent lab
results of mine. I was checked for hypothyroidism (which I don't have,
thyroid is fine), so the endocrinologist ran a full blood panel. I had two
interesting results.*
* *
*1. The doctor says I have mild polycythemia, which means that my red blood
cell counts were high. It  can be caused by dehydration, but could also be
caused by other scarier conditions. I'm probably producing about 40
ounces of milk per day for my boy-who-won't-eat, so it wouldn't be
surprising if I weren't drinking enough water to support that. I'll be
intentionally drinking more water and then will have my red blood cells
checked again to see if dehydration is what was causing the polycythemia. My
question is: have you ever heard of this among women who are exclusively
nursing a heavy baby, so producing a lot of milk?

2. Also, my vitamin D was very low: 12.4 ng/mL (healthy range is 32.0-100.0).
He gave me a prescription for ergocalciferol, to take one tablet weekly for
eight weeks. Then he wants me to take an OTC vitamin D supplement of 1,000
IU daily. I am pretty alarmed that my D is so low. My prenatal vitamin
provides 100% of the RDA (400 IU) and only about 15 minutes of sun exposure
is required to provide 100% of the RDA, plus I do drink milk, so why is my
D abysmally low? I'm wondering if John's D needs are sucking me dry? But
maybe that doesn't make sense because very little D makes it into breast
milk, which is why exclusively breastfed babies are often advised to take a
D supplement. Do you think there is any nursing connection?*
**
Thank you,
Anne Grider, IBCLC

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome