breast feeding and weight loss/ side effects??

[missytequila]

Just wondering if this happened to anyone else..

Breast feeding is draining me completely. I am actually too skinny, can't keep weight on, have circles under my eyes, and now my hair is falling out at a very very rapid rate..

my family now thinks I am anorexic and keeps telling me I look tired... but I am eating lots and taking vitamins...

did anyone else lose all their hair...am worried i will be bald soon?

baby is 6.5 months...and drinking more and more milk, food not going so well..

missy - this is unlikely to have anything to do with breastfeeding. Please see a doctor - the hair loss sounds serious.

missytequila I'm also still losing weight with 4 month old baby no matter how much I eat. My hair is falling out too, but I think that's just the post-pregnancy thing and nothing to do with BF. Ask your mum if she lost a lot of hair post-baby - apparently it's genetic, like stretchmarks. I have the dark circles, but that's the sleepless nights

Like tiktok says though... get your GP to run some blood tests. There is a thyroid thing that causes weightloss AFAIK, but I can't remember if it's over/under-active.

Post pregnancy hair loss is normal, true enough, but not to the extent of leaving bald patches :( And coupled with weight loss and tiredness....it's deffo something for the doc.

Oh and a friend who lost a lot of hair post baby (she cut it so it didn't look too bad) told me her mother actually lost a lot more hair after having her

I suspect poor nutrition may have been a contributory factor there though, but anyway it grew back between babies.

My mum also lost a lot of hair with her first baby so I'm not panicking as it grew back! (She didn't BF so wasn't related)

my hair is falling out too. Kellymom says it's normal.

www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mom/hairloss.html

Yes, it is normal....but not to the extent described by the OP, where she fears losing it all. And she is losing weight and unable to regain it.

Not normal. Needs a doctor.

It recognised that pregnancy can make the thyroid over or underactive, so you need to get it checked quickly.

Some naturally slim women who don't build up fat reserves in pregnancy (not me, I have to say) can find that they need to eat loads and loads in the early months of breastfeeding of they will lose weight very rapidly.

But this case sounds far more serious than that.

I was constantly thirsty and hungry when I was breastfeeding and lost a lot of weight. I have always been slim but my mum did used to comment about how skinny I looked. Don't worry soon as you stop breastfeeding you put it back on!
I did lose hair, especially around the front, and was self conscious about it, but again it has grown back. Also, at no point did I think that I would go bald though.

i asked my mother and apparently she too was ultra skinny when breastfeeding me... so why is she so concerned that I am skinny too??

she cant remember about the hair loss...

i guess a blood test would be a good idea