Can gluten cause oversupply????

[crunchy_mommy]

I feel like bells are going off like crazy right now!

I had MAJOR oversupply since DS was born. Not the "oh great now I can pump extra milk" type of oversupply, but the "baby is screaming & writing in pain & miserable" type of oversupply, had to do 12+ hour blocks to get it somewhat under control & finally normalized when he was 15 mos or so (he's now 19 mos). I don't think I can explain how horrible this oversupply problem was to someone who hasn't dealt with it.

Anyway. I went on an elimination diet for myself about 1.5 months ago. I cut out corn, soy, & gluten. After adding in lots of supplements I finally got back to baseline & added corn back in with no major problems.

Early last week I tried gluten -- in the form of whole wheat pasta. Good amount of it, 3 days in a row (just to confirm that I really was reacting to it, and I was, made me super tired which was my primary symptom leading to the ED). OK so stopped eating wheat again.

Mid-last week I unexpectedly ended up with a huge oversupply. DS was nursing LESS if anything (we had cut down on before-bed nursing), and nothing else changed that I know of. I am getting it back under control but DS has been a mess because of it all week.

So I'm sitting here researching & thinking, trying to figure out what has made him scream & cling to me & wake up every 5-10 minutes all night long... Then I thought about the timing, the oversupply, the wheat.... is it possible??? Has this happened to anyone??? I would try wheat again to test it but I'm not sure I can deal with another bout of massive oversupply.

DS has eaten wheat himself (and was off it for about a month while I was off it) and it didn't seem to affect him directly...

[tanyalynn]

I've read of this a few times, some people seem to react with over-supply, others with under-supply. Seems to be some sort of inflammation reaction. I think I had a much lower level version when I was nursing DS--I only recognized it in retrospect, but yeah, I think it's real and it's been discussed a few times.

[crunchy_mommy]

Interesting. I will have to see if I can bring up any of the old posts. So sad to think that over a year's worth of oversupply & causing DS so much pain could have been avoided by avoiding gluten...

[tanyalynn]

Don't think of it like that. Thing is, it sounds like it's inflammation in general--there's problem-solving to figure out what's causing it in your particular case, yk? Other folks have different foods, or different combinations of foods. And some folks have dramatic under-supply, and the whole "nurse the baby more" advice doesn't help.

You've figured it out now, which sounds good for your health and good for your LO, and you can go forward from here. We're all doing the best we can.

eta: search for Panserbjorne's old posts, she talked about it a few times, maybe here, maybe one of the Breastfeeding forums? I don't remember for sure.

[stephienoodle]

I think it caused oversupply for me. I had a similar story - block fed for 12 hour blocks (there was a nighttime boob and a daytime boob ) and pumped 5-8oz each morning for the first few months and donated them. My supply cut back drastically are the same time that I stopped eating gluten when DS was about 11 months old. He certainly wasn't nursing any less at that point, because he wasn't eating solids.

[provocativa]

yes. it causes elevated prolactin. this per the book dangerous grains by hoggan et al. elevated prolactin is listed in the footnotes in the back. i had chronic oversupply until i quit wheat. prolactin has other effects on the body- spaciness and add-type symptoms (that's one reason it's hard to write a disseration with a newborn at the breast).