> I have limited information from a colleague....They heard someone from
> Stanford Univ. speaking on TV about how children of mothers with
> eating disorders nurse "differently" than children of mothers without
> eating disorders.  Does anyone have more information on this they could
> share???
>


I don't know of any study on this.  Anecdotally, I have seen women with
eating disorders respond to the experience of breastfeeding differently
than some other women - particularly if the eating disorder arose out of
a sexual abuse experience.  For those mothers I have worked with who
have gotten past their own issues about breastfeeding (either abuse
related or a fear that breastfeeding was causing them to retain more
fluid or fat), I didn't see any difference in the breastfeeding child.

If the mother is currently involved in her addiction, theoretically she
might be causing changes in her milk if mom's malnutrition becomes
severe.  But again, I work closely with a woman who has frequent lapses
into bulimia, through two pregnancies (she is in her eighth month of her
second pregnancy) and 3 1/2 years of nursing the first child, and there
were no physical problems detected in the nursing child.  Folic acid has
obviously been a problem in both pregnancies (had amnio to rule out
Down's each time) and has anemia being treated with iron shots.  As her
due date approaches, bulimia becomes more of a problem as she fears a
delivery like her first - pushed for three hours and tore considerably.

If anyone knows of studies of breastfeeding in women with eating
disorders, I would love cites.

Thanks.

Jake
--
Jake Marcus-Cipolla, retired lawyer, student lactation
consultant, part-time media consultant (Marcus Media Consulting),
stay-at-home mom to Luca Antonio (7/26/94) and Nicholas Liam (5/1/97),
LLL Leader.

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