Jan B writes:In my experience (vast -- w/ Atkins -- don't flame me -- BTDT)
is that the
>drop in milk supply mirrors the amazing drop in calories that this mom is
>taking in.  W/ a lo carb diet, mom is not nearly as hungry -- is eating
>according to how hungry she is, but she simply doesn't have the
>cravings/hunger that she did before, so milk supply decreases accordingly.  I
>remember reading somewhere -- a long time ago -- that mom's milk supply can
>tolerate a slow decrease in caloric intake, but if she drops suddenly from
>say 2500 cal/day to 1000 cal/day, that after about a week, the milk supply
>will drop.  If she's always been on 1000 cal/day or less (as women in third
>world countries on starvation type diets), her milk supply will do OK,
>because her body has adjusted to that.  But a sudden decrease tells her body
>she's in starvation mode and to conserve on all fronts.

The latter part of Jan's post is in keeping with my understanding too.

I had two mothers using the Atkins diet. One modified it somewhat and ate a
lot of food. Her milk supply was fine. The other almost lost her supply
totally. She said that she was just not hungry and couldn't eat enough meat
and vegs to meet the caloric requirement. She stopped the diet and, with
some herbs, restored her supply. Her baby was 7 months old.

Then I had a mother (baby was 9 months old) whose milk supply plummetted
everytime she "worked out." She said that if she ate 1800 calories a day
she would be a blimp. She was into muscle building and "fitness." AFter a
lot of talking I discovered that her pre-pregnancy size is a 4 and she
considered a 6 "a blimp." (She is 5'5" tall) She admitted that when whe was
working out (vigorously) she consumed 1000cal at the most.

I convinced her to feed her baby for now and after she weaned him (at 1
year!!) she could get back into her tiny clothes. She stopped the weight
loss and muscle building and her milk supply rebounded within a week.

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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