>I have a client who presented me with an interesting question the other day.
> She is currently 4 months pregnant and has a hx of anexoria/bulemia. She was
>able to breastfeed her first child (now age 18 months) for six months, not as
>long as she would have liked, for 2 reasons: she felt her feeding schedule
>was becoming "out of wack" from her excessive binging and purging, and that
>this was effecting her baby, and; she swears that she felt her bones being
>"gnawed away"  the longer she continued to nurse.
>

I've read this several times and each time it sounds as if she was "binging
and purging" while she was breastfeeding.  Is that correct? If so it isn't
only her bones that are being "gnawed away," and the breastfeeding isn't the
culprit here. Breastfeeding did not "cause her bone density to become so
terrible."

I'm not sure what I would recommend to her other than that she reconsider
continuing to concieve if she can't get help in respecting her body's needs.
Well, actually I would recommend that she get some much-needed help in
dealing with the disorder while she is pregnant and continue it while she
feeds her baby at her breast.

I have worked with two women who had had similar eating disorders but while
they were feeding their babies they concentrated on eating very well and by
the time they had b'fed two babies they were at peace with their bodies and
didn't return to the former abuse.

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee


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