fasting to treat PPD?

[mrs.felt]

edit: nevermind.

[lauradoc]

Ummm. I have suffered with depression for most of my life also. After reading your post, IMO you need some help NOW. If you are struggling to provide adequate care for your baby, struggling to remember to FEED baby, you need an appointment with a care provider NOW. Not November. Whatever therapy you and your provider decide on, it will take TIME (sometimes weeks) for improvement to occur. Need to start NOW. I'm worried about you and I'm worried about your baby.

I know that meds can make you feel *different* from yourself. But your baby's physical and emotional development are at stake here, as well as your own well being. If you need to make medication to get straight so you can take of yourself and baby, just do it.

Please do not fast. You need the calories right now, and so does the baby. You can try fasting when the baby is weaned.

[mrs.felt]

Ummm. I have suffered with depression for most of my life also. After reading your post, IMO you need some help NOW. If you are struggling to provide adequate care for your baby, struggling to remember to FEED baby, you need an appointment with a care provider NOW. Not November. Whatever therapy you and your provider decide on, it will take TIME (sometimes weeks) for improvement to occur. Need to start NOW. I'm worried about you and I'm worried about your baby.

I know that meds can make you feel *different* from yourself. But your baby's physical and emotional development are at stake here, as well as your own well being. If you need to make medication to get straight so you can take of yourself and baby, just do it.

Please do not fast. You need the calories right now, and so does the baby. You can try fasting when the baby is weaned.


oh, i think i wasn't clear with my post. :(

i'm not having THAT much trouble with taking care of noah. i DO remember to feed him (that was something that happened only the first few days) and i can provide care for him -- but i'm so exhausted that my husband has to rush home from work to relieve me so i can go take a nap and my mom comes by after work (around noon) to give me a mini-break. by the time the weekend rolls around, i'm so fatigued that sometimes DH takes the baby several hours at a time. i'm not endangering my son if that's what you were implying -- although i might just be hypersensitive right now. :crying also, i AM seeing my doctor regularly, i just can't start anti-depressants now because of an interaction with a drug i'm taking for menorrhagia.

i guess i should have been more clear with my post, but i got the information i needed about fasting from the nurse at my OBs office. thanks for your reply.

[Gale Force]

mrs.felt -- I missed your original post, but just wanted to add that PPD is often associated with nutritional deficiencies, particularly that level of fatigue. I grew up on what I thougth was a really healthy diet and I ended up extremely malnourished, so it can happen to anyone.

Do you have access to a doctor who works with deficiencies? Can you ask around? I know so well that when you are just trying to get by from minute to minute that you can't get hooked up with the resources you need. Perhaps one of us can find someone for you if you cannot.

In the meantime, find cod liver oil (I recommend the Twin Labs orange flavor) and start taking it daily. It will help with your essential fatty acids, something most of us moms are low in. Chapped lips and dry skin are a sign of deficiency in good fats, though with the weather changing, the wind may aggravate your lips as well.

B vitamins is another big one that is easy to be deficient in and that we lose a lot of in pregnancy and breastfeeding. How pink are your lips? Nice pink lips are good and a sign of adequate B vitamins (not bright red, that's another issue). Mine are a pale pink and used to approach gray in color. They are getting better, but I still have a problem. I supplement my Bs with a B complex and my amino acid supplement contains some as well. I am going to ask my doc next time about Bs in liquid form.

[mrs.felt]

mrs.felt -- I missed your original post, but just wanted to add that PPD is often associated with nutritional deficiencies, particularly that level of fatigue. I grew up on what I thougth was a really healthy diet and I ended up extremely malnourished, so it can happen to anyone.

Do you have access to a doctor who works with deficiencies? Can you ask around? I know so well that when you are just trying to get by from minute to minute that you can't get hooked up with the resources you need. Perhaps one of us can find someone for you if you cannot.

In the meantime, find cod liver oil (I recommend the Twin Labs orange flavor) and start taking it daily. It will help with your essential fatty acids, something most of us moms are low in. Chapped lips and dry skin are a sign of deficiency in good fats, though with the weather changing, the wind may aggravate your lips as well.

B vitamins is another big one that is easy to be deficient in and that we lose a lot of in pregnancy and breastfeeding. How pink are your lips? Nice pink lips are good and a sign of adequate B vitamins (not bright red, that's another issue). Mine are a pale pink and used to approach gray in color. They are getting better, but I still have a problem. I supplement my Bs with a B complex and my amino acid supplement contains some as well. I am going to ask my doc next time about Bs in liquid form.

thanks for your reply. i think i will ask around for a referral to someone who can check for deficiencies. that hadn't even crossed my mind. i haven't noticed anything weird with my lips but my skin doesn't have as much color as it used to. i wonder if that's a sign of anything? i guess i should probably be seeing another care provider since my OB seems uninterested in exploring possible treatments other than anti-depressants. :(

[Gale Force]

thanks for your reply. i think i will ask around for a referral to someone who can check for deficiencies. that hadn't even crossed my mind. i haven't noticed anything weird with my lips but my skin doesn't have as much color as it used to. i wonder if that's a sign of anything? i guess i should probably be seeing another care provider since my OB seems uninterested in exploring possible treatments other than anti-depressants. :(

Definitely try to find someone and be very clear that you need help now. It is so hard to advocate for yourself when you are depressed, but most of the time we are the only ones who can do it.

And it's not really a wierd thing with lips. Start looking at people. A lot of people have fairly pale lips. My son's are a vibrant pink. He's first in line for my B vitamins. If my lips looked like his, I would never bother with lipstick.