my name is ashley, and im in the lapband process right now. im in the lose-weight-to-shrink-your-liver stage right now. im still nursing my 15month old, and thats how i found this board, looking for information on getting the surgery done while breastfeeding. i dont have a date set yet, my sister will be coming to help me with the baby, and she needs to confirm her spring break first.

i look forward to hanging around and getting to know all of y'all :wink2:

Hi Ashley-

I used to help breastfeeding moms so I can give you some pointers. First, with any surgery, you are going to have pump and dump while in the hospital and until the anesthesia leaves your system. If you are on strong pain killers, you probably want to pump and dump for those too, though a lot of them are not as bad as people assume.

Afterwards, since you are getting a band and won't have restriction at first, you should be okay with getting enough calories, but you may have to talk to your NUT about a modified diet.

The first couple of weeks on liquids will be the toughest. If they want you on Clear Liquids for a while, there is not much nutrition. But if you can have Protein drinks and you can get them down and get in the calories, it could be workable. Really, that will be the hardest part--the liquid diet. Once you are eating more kinds of food, you should be okay though you will have to eat more calories than they normally recommend.

How often does your kid nurse? At 15 months, dd was down to just a few times a day, so continuing to breastfeed her while having and recovering from surgery wouldn't have been too hard. But some kids are still getting a lot of nutrition from breastmilk at that age. It all kind of depends.

Do you have a lactation consultant you can work with?

Also, with a 15 month old, I am going to guess that you will get lots of advice to just wean already. It's definitely an option, but if you don't want to, then I think you owe it to yourself to work out a plan and give it a try.