Hypothyroidism and breast feeding

[Molly161018]

I hope this might be helpful to someone out there... because I wish I knew before I had my baby...

At 5 days old my little man had to go back into hospital as he'd lost a lot of weight...and it turned out a problem with my milk supply. Feeding had been a nightmare as he was super fussy and was terrible at latching, but being as it's my first baby I had no idea what it was supposed to be like!!

However, we were put on a feeding plan and topped up his feeds with formula and pumped in-between times to try and improve my supply.

A few days later, I had an appointment with a feeding specialist and one of the first few questions she asked was "do you have a history of thyroid problems?"...it turns out that hypothyroidism can effect the development of breast tissue and in turn lead to supply issues...and she thought I'd probably never improve my supply enough to breast feed exclusively.

My biggest hang up about the whole thing is why wasn't I told it could be an issue before?! It would have saved a lot of stress and heartache and feelings of failure!!

Because of my hypothyroidism, I was under a consultant during the pregnancy (or saw a member of his 'team' on a regular basis anyway) and all they could focus on was my low tsh levels and tell me I shouldn't be self medicating with t3, even though they couldn't tell me any way it would effect my baby...why didn't they tell me something relevant and useful, like I might struggle to breastfeed??

[nightingale-56]

Thank you for posting your breastfeeding story Molly161018 . I fed my first son with no problems, although I never had an awful lot of milk and supplemented with something called Lactogol as recommended by the Health Visitor. My second son was born by C-Section and had hormonal problems. I had no milk at all for him and he was fed expressed breast milk while in hospital for his first three months. My daughter, born 20 month after my second son, and me having a sub-total thyroidectomy while 14 weeks pregnant with her, I was able to feed for 5 months and then suddenly lost my milk. I think she had been starved for three days, but as I had started weaning by then, this wasn't as bad as it could have been. She took to a cup straight away. For neither of the last two children was I told that I could have feeding problems. At that time I was not being treated with Levothyroxine at all, when I so clearly should have been.

[NIKEGIRL]

Hi. I do feel your heartache. I breast fed my two babies and it is such a hard process when u don’t know anything. Breastfeeding can make u feel like a failure especially when you see other women getting on with it effortlessly. Do praise yourself for being proactive. Giving my little guy all u can is a good effort and topping up is ok as well. My chap was starving all the time and born at 9lb 1oz he is now 6ft 3inches and about to be 22. Enjoy this time. It just goes too fast. You’re doing a great job. Never forget that no matter how old your beautiful son is. Kindest regards always NIKEGIRL