Need hellp for a friend. Her peiod came and milk dried up

[riverview9]

I think the baby was occasionally getting a bottle of formula at night. The baby is a month old and my friends period is back. She says she is not producing enough so is giving formula now. I wonder if she doesn't want to bf and is using this as an excuse. I wnat to help but am also frustrated/saddended(sp?) that she would let this end her bf experience

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

Formula is a BAD BAD BAD cycle to get into. 

She needs to try to nurse as often as possible.  If her baby is only a month old, that baby should be at the breast every HOUR if not more!  That will absolutly help to get her supply back up.  Really, at 4 weeks, you would think shed have an oversupply issue. 

MOthers milk tonic by Herb Pharm did wonders for me. 

NURSE NURSE NURSE.  But if shes not into it, theres not much more you can do for her. 

[PatioGardener]

At 4 weeks it may not be her period either, but that bleed that often happens between 4 and 6 weeks PP (some sort of normal bloody discharge that goes away.)

[happysmileylady]

Honestly, to "help" her, just support her decisions and don't make assumptions about when the baby was given bottles or formula unless she tells you.

I started out totally EBF dd2.  I was still experiencing post partum bleeding at 1 month, but by 6wks was done.  And 2 wks later, at 8wks, AF came back.  Again, my baby was totally EBF, on demand.  And AF still showed at 8 wks.

When AF showed, she refused to nurse.  I think it changed the taste.  The most important thing is always of course to FEED the baby.  She would not nurse, I had to give her bottles.  I was pumping like crazy to try to replace the missed nursing so she was not getting formula, but she was still getting the bottle, because she still had to eat.  At one point, she started losing weight.

She of course developed a bottle preference and the pumping was not providing enough stimulation to maintain my supply.  I was doing herbs and pumping and trying to basically force her to nurse-nursing while rocking, while in the tub, walking around, using an SNS, all of it.  At 5 months, I had to start using formula, because I couldn't pump enough for her.  At 5.5 months, I gave up. 

My point is that while unusual, AF CAN show up that early.  And, if baby refused to nurse because of that, it's entirely possible that it's tanking her supply.  Or it could be that baby is refusing to nurse and she assumes that it's a supply issue. 

OR, it could be that she doesn't want to deal with nursing (as a mamma who totally FF one child, part FF and part BF a second and is currently EBF the third, my experience is that nursing is more of a pain than bottles) and that's ok.  It could be that she's telling you she's not producing enough so that she doesn't have to justify why she doesn't want to nurse to you.

[riverview9]

I'm not sure how much I should say to her. She mentioned on FB that her supply is down to next to nothing because of her period. I told her to contact LLL (she has the #) and that fenugreek helped me when I had supply issues.

My pet peeve is people who say they want to BF and then give up over some little issue. Pregnant women hear this and think BF must be hard and get bad info (like when your period comes you have to supplement formula)