post-weaning a toddler hormonal issues - skin and hair??

[missabc123]

hi all

I fully weaned my extended breastfed toddler about two months ago, he had been slowly weaned over the last two years, finally giving up the last feed or two (morning and pre-nap) aged 26 months.

Recently I have noticed a large change in my skin and hair.

My hair has become ultra dry and coarse (and greasy at the roots) even though I have given up on my bad habit of washing it every day. It's as though i have been pulled through a hedge backwards - frizzy and coarse! My skin looks really bad - enlarged pores, looks a lot older, dark circles under eyes increased, dark around eyes - pigmentation issues - basically I look a load older and very tired (possibly a bit ill!).

The skin on my hands is a bit dry too and I have put on weight around my middle / upper abdomen.

I am wondering if this could be related to the post weaning hormonal change and if anyone else experienced anything similar?

I'm also considering possible diabetic / thyroid issues but was tested for those a few months ago and that came up negative. I am a working single parent with all sorts of other stresses and constantly overworked so that may also be a factor.

I had a really hard time with BF and PND - in the early days of bf I had something called DMER which is a low bleak empty feeling on letdown due to a lack of serotonin (basically making doing it a nightmare!). This cut down at around 5 months post partum but I suffered terrible PND, I think possibly also impacted by my hormonal response to BF and the nasty relationship breakdown I was going through at the time.

When I first completely weaned a couple of months ago I felt ten times better in the space of a couple of days so put it down to the hormones bf creates thinking maybe my PND had been caused by it all along! This subsided after a few days and now I have all these skin and hair issues... not to mention feeling rundown, tired, stressed - as well as pretty depressed of late...

But anyway, just wondered if anyone had experienced anything similar post breastfeeding weaning??

Many thanks! :)

The hormones do affect skin/hair.

In my case the reverse to you ... I have super sensitive skin and hives which increase when I feed more (growth spurts or if she's clingy).

It seems quite common from online research to have these changes ... but there's no advice from doctors, lactation sites or dermatologists. Frustrating.

I've found bio oil helps (someone told me even cheaper - coconut oil or castor oil for hair especially). Also you could try a post natal skin and nail vitamin? Holland & Barratt do some.

Also interesting about the seratonin thing. I have PNA and basically got low and panicky when feeding at first. Wonder if that was why? Luckily it seems ok now.

A supplement is a really good idea :-)

I have bought some hemp seed oil I'm going to give a go (it doesn't block the pores and is meant to be great for skin) as a moisturiser. Henna is great for hair so that might sort the condition of that out a bit!

But you are right a supplement is probably the way forwards!

my milk supply doesn't seem to have dried up completely so maybe the hormones are still affecting me... it could the slow burn of slow slow weaning...

When I went to my GP suffering low moods and tiredness and so on while cutting down on BFing to my surprise she said that there was little chance that weaning would cause these issues (!!), but when I read online a lot of people seem to have these issues and it fit perfectly that every time I dropped a feed I got depressed for a few days.

Sounds like you had the DMER thing too - I realise i wrongly said serotonin - I think it's dopamine rather than that actually drops, which is the happy chemical - strangely when I spoke to two of my friends who were breastfeeding they both said they had black thoughts and felt low on letdown during early BFing too so it seems quite common. Not nice but at least now you know why it could be...

I'm hoping that the skin and hair issues will resolve with time. In any case I need a health overhaul - am radically changing my eating habits (much more fresh fruit, veg, nuts etc) and trying to find more time for exercise....easier said than done with a toddler in tow and a self employed job to handle on my own...!! But getting a bit easier now thank god...with a young baby it's always easier to eat a slice of toast than cook!! Time to get back to healthy foods now he is a bit easier... !!

I had this after bfing DS1 -lots of B vitamins and sea kelp supplements helped.