Dear Lactnetters,

After more than a month of NO MAIL I'm happy to be back and hate to think of
all I missed...

I have a question:  I saw a mother of a 6 wk. old IVF baby who had a normal
pregnancy and delivery and saw colostrum during the entire last trimester.
 The first day in the hospital she still had colostrum and the baby breastfed
several times.  From the time she got home (24 hrs. more or less) she never
saw any milk at all.  There were no further breast changes and absolutely no
evidence of milk, even with pumping.

This mother was in the care of another LC and diligently attempted to
stimulate her milk production including the use of Reglan.  At three weeks or
so she had her prolactin and thyroid levels tested.  Both were low.  She has
a thyroid lump which has doubled in size since April 1995.

This week a reproductive endocrinologist diagnosed her with autoimmune
hypophysitis which indicates a swelling or inflammation of the pituitary.

This mother is currently feeding her baby soy formula in an SNS at the breast
and would love to know if there is any chance of treatment which would
perhaps allow her to lactate.  The doctors so far have not seemed to know if
this would be possible.
All of the information on pituitary disorders I have found mainly deals w.
the opposite problem.  There may have been an article a couple of years ago
in the New England Journal of Medicine about this - if anyone knows of this
please let me know.
Do any of you have experience with this?  Any ideas will be welcome.  Thank
you so much.
Glad to be back with you all,
Janaki Costello, IBCLC, LLLL, D.C. CCE in beautiful, sunny El Cerrito, CA.