Jodi,
I have some intimate knowledge of Herbalife Products as I currently take some
of their products and spent a short time as a distributor. Herbalife is sold
by individual distributors and they have a big line of supplements some of
them targeted for weight loss. They also have skin care products.  The
supplements are various vitamins and herbs. I still take some of the vitamins
and one of the natural supplements targeted for people with allergies and
asthma and find that they help me a lot.

When I took the products I researched the ingredients first. I did not find
anything that would appear to bother my nursing infants.  However, the
distributors are ruthless. They will insist that nothing in the products will
harm a nursing baby. Of course we know that anything  a mother may ingest can
be passed in the milk to some degree. Based on my own experience I would doubt
that anything in the products would be dangerous, however her baby could be
sensitive to an ingredient in any one of the products. Because even the
vitamins are combined with several herbs, it might be difficult to determine
which ingredient to pinpoint if a problem did arise.

My biggest problem with the Weight Loss Plan is that it has the potential to
help this mother drop a large amount of weight quickly, which could really
impact her milk supply. I have seen people on the products drop 30 # in a
month.  Also, on Herbalife's Weight Loss Plan, people are only eating one meal
a day. The other two meals consist of their "Shake" which is a protein powder
that most people mix with dairy or juices. This could create a sensitivity in
her baby, if she is ingesting lots of dairy or citrus!  It certainly goes
against "everything in moderation"!  One of the other things to watch for is
which protein powder she is using. Herbalife markets one of their "shakes" as
a "Health & Fitness" formula. This shake contains aspartame which is not going
to make anyone healthy and fit in my mind!  I have read that LLLI has received
calls about babies not being able to suck after their mothers ingested
aspartame. I do not know if this is a fact or just rumor and I am in the
process of trying to verify this.  My suggestions would be to treat these
products with the same caution as any "natural" supplements she would be
interested in ingesting.

If the baby is approaching a year old and is eating a substantial amount of
food she may not have a problem losing a great deal of weight quickly.
However, if her baby is still nursing frequently she could seriously impact
her milk supply by dropping a huge amount of weight. One of the supplements
(Herbalife calls them "The Green Tablets")
includes ephedra which could act a stimulant on the baby as well as turning
her milk a shade of green.  Another supplement called "NRG"  is made from an
herb called guarana that includes some caffeine. This could also affect her
baby.

All in all, I like some of their products but stopped selling them because I
was very uncomfortable with the company's stance that the products were safe
for everyone. Many of the distributors will push these products on anyone and
everyone, including lactating mothers without so much as a second thought. The
distributor that sponsored me insisted that all of the products were safe for
me to take while I was breastfeeding. ( I didn't take her word for it!)  but
it was a different story just last year when HER daughter had a new baby with
some breastfeeding problems and HER daughter was taking the supplements!!!!
I recommended that her daughter eliminate some of the products during the
period of time where we were trying to determine the cause of the baby's
fussiness at the breast.  The products weren't the problem, dairy was the
culprit, but it was interesting to see Grandma the super distributor change
her tune as to if the products might be the problem.

Herbalife used to have a Medical Advisory Board with a phone # to call with
questions about the products but to my knowledge it has been discontinued.  I
would suggest that this mom use caution with the products and use as few as
she can to start and perhaps gradually add products to test for a sensitivity
in her baby. Herbalife has a LARGE variety of products and adding more every
day. My own perception is that they are expanding too fast and I am not sure
if I am comfortable with the rate that they are adding more and more "natural"
products in their catalog.  The company is definately making big bucks and I
am always suspicous of big corporations!!!   Well that's my .02 and then
some!!!!!  If you want any more detailed info on the products I can try and
help you research them some more, email me at momtogaka@aol.com.. Good
Luck!!!!!!     Lisa Papas