BF aneamia and periods

[Beccarollo]

I just read something about this on the doctors thread and thought id start a thread.

Im BFing DS 11 weeks exclusively apart from a blip a week or so ago where I thought my supply was going and naievely gave some bottles thinking that would help, quickly realised this wasnt the way and put him back on 100% breast and frequent feeds.

My periods have come back Is this because I gave a few bottles?

I was at the doctors the other day to get results of blood test my midwife took to check for aneamia and have been prescribed iron as I am aneamic.

Is my aneamia caused by my periods starting again? Poor nutrition or what?

I am not a doctor, but I do read a lot My understanding is that anaemia is actually the result of quite a long time with borderline iron levels - maybe you were slightly this way before pregnancy and during pregnancy, and the start of your periods tipped you over as it were. It's likely to be a combination of this and diet.

Lack of breastfeeding, infrequent breastfeeds, and longer times between breastfeeds, do mean your periods are likely to begin again...some mothers find they start again when their babies go longer at night. Others are the opp end of the spectrum, and don't start again until after they have totally stopped breastfeeding.

So....those bottles may well have allowed your periods to begin again, but this in itself won't have caused your anaemia, just contributed to it.

Hope everything works out ok.

I think I should just add that the return of periods, like everything else in life, varies hugely from person to person and they can come back despite frequent exclusive breast feeding. Mine came back at six weeks when I was bf about 2 hourly day and night. So I don't think you can say whether or not the bottles had anything to do with it.