.

[nakagain]

[paquerette]

What thyroid disease do you have? How is it being treated? Do you still feel symptomatic? Are you getting the "oh, your levels are fine" brush-off? Sorry if you've already researched the topic and know this, but hypothyroidism is notoriously undertreated and maybe you wouldn't have to work your butt off to keep your supply, but just be adequately medicated.

[lisac77]

How low are we talking here? I have hypothyroidism (and I have since before I got pregnant) and went untreated for a full 18 months after my son was born. It didn't affect my milk supply in any detectable manner - he gained weight fine and I had plenty of back up milk (I worked and pumped).

If you're worried about your thyroid, find a good doctor and see if treatment will help!

Best of luck.

[Slabobbin]

I can relate to having a low supply, I have to supplement due to PCOS. That said, there is a lot more to parenting than how the baby is fed. Don't get me wrong, breastfeeding is huge to me, but if you can't you can't.

[nakagain]

Its hard to find a decent doctor. My thyroid affects my supply big time. If I forget my meds I can feel the difference. After each birth its been harder and harder to get my milk supply going. Oh I have a hypo thyroid and I'm on 88 MCG synthroid. Which isn't too bad but enough to make a supply tougher to get going. Before this last pregnancy I was 5MCG and I had supply issues. I've never supplimented and it took so many tears and blessings to suceed.

I have been feeling very systematic the past month and I've only missed one day of my medicine. I guess I should call around for a doctor tomorrow.

[Sarah]

I think that breastfeeding is very important... but I think welcoming a child destined to be a member of your family is even MORE important... I think that the best attitude to take would be that you will do whatever it takes to give your child a good life in a loving family- and if that means supplementing or formula feeding- so be it- if breastfeeding is possible- even better- but to avoid having a baby because of worries about nursing? Don't burden yourself that way! Take care of your own health- I hope that you can find some good help with this!

Love Sarah

[paquerette]

I hope that you're able to find a doctor who will be more aggressive in treatment. That's still a pretty low dose, and lots of people find that synthroid doesn't make them feel better, just makes their test results look good on paper. Have you tried here for a doctor? http://www.thyroid-info.com/topdrs/

[PicnicBear]

I was FF fed and I am glad to be here!

[leafwood]

Having a thyroid disorder is really tough. I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and was diagnosed at 18y. I was fine through my pregnancay but they wanted to lower my synthroid at 6 weeks post-partum due to my labs. The OB wanted me to go from 112MG to 88MG. Thankfully I was also seeing an endocrinologist. He had me lower my dose slightly by alternating 112MG and 100MG every other day. Then at 18 months post-partum I began feeling symptomatic and now I'm on 112MG again. For me, slight changes make a huge difference. For other people, they need much more dramatic changes in dose to get back on track. I would encourage you to talk to your endo about your concerns and even ask if you could have more frequent monitoring post-partum to avoid supply issues.

Also, my endo did say that my levels are likely to get worse after each child and my long-term prognosis would be removal of my entire thyroid someday (when done with pregnancy and nursing) if it continues to fluctuate. I was also warned to avoid all soy as it can prevent the synthroid from working correctly. I also have to take it with a full galss of water one hour before eating.

I'm sorry that you are dealing with this as I know it can be hard. I hope you are able to find a good doctor who will treat you as a person and not a lab result.

[wtchyhlr]

Another Hypothyroid Nursing Mama Here...

If the synthroid isn't working for you, find a doc who will prescribe armour thyroid. Synthroid is straight T4, and Armour is a blend of T3 and T4. The assumption most doc's are under is that when a person takes T4 their body makes t3. That was not the case in my situation. My TSH was in the normal range, but I was still tired, puffy, and losing hair. So we switched me to the equivalent dosage of Armour (I was at 150mcg of Synthroid, and am on 3g of Armour) and it was like night and day. I have so much more energy, its amazing

And... I've been hypothyroid for years, but during my pregnancy, my thyroid normalled out, adn didn't crash again until about 6mo pp. so pregnancy affects thyroids different ways for different folks. I have not noticed any supply changes inr elation to my dosage of thyroid meds, either.