Dear all:

I know of no literature that shows that temporary diarrhea in an otherwise well nourished woman causes a dip in the milk supply.  Having worked in many countries which have many varied pathogens that can lead to severe diarrhea among populations who are not well nourished, I do not recall any mothers ever complaining about diarrhea leading to low supply -- and they did complain about low supply.  If there was any place on the planet where one would expect this to be the case, it would have been in Niger, where temperatures soar to 114 degrees Farenheit IN THE SHADE and the thermostat on the top of the white Land Rover read 150 degrees Farenheit.  Mothers there DID complain about low supply, but diarrhea was never one of their identified causes.  In a place where the scarcity of water has caused the population to develop more words for water than there are words for snow and ice among people who live in the far north and artic, you think that if dehydration were to cause low milk supply it would certainly be obvious there.

I have seen cases where severe stress caused a mother to have TEMPORARY problems releasing her milk -- but even with continued stress the milk release responded in spite of the stress and the actual supply never really dipped. 

Having experienced many forms of diarrhea from many varied pathogens including cholera outbreaks.  I did manage to avoid  ghiardia by never eating any uncooked greens unless they were doused with an iodine wash.  Since I am over the age of 50 I would have to say that the prep for a colonoscopy, however unpleasant some people may find it does not compete on the "violent diarrhea" scale of my experiences in developing areas of the world.  Without getting into details, I personally would characterize a colonoscopy as a "mild cleanse"  in comparison.  

I am always willing to be educated by EVIDENCE to the contrary.  Until I see concrete evidence to the contrary, I would think any healthy woman with a reasonable amount of fat stores to start with should be able to weather a colonoscopy with minimal impact and most likely highly temporary impact on supply.  It does not make sense in the germy world which we used to live in before some pockets of industrialized portions of our world acquired flush toilets and piped water, that a mother's milk supply would be trashed by what can be a relatively common experience in other parts of the world.


Sincerely,

Susan E. Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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