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It is recognized that women lose bone density while breastfeeding, and many doctors and patients believe that increasing calcium intake will prevent the loss. But this may not be true, according to two randomized trials.
Both trials compared calcium supplementation (1 g daily) with placebo in lactating and nonlactating postpartum women; in the second trial, the lactating mothers weaned their infants two months after enrollment. Each trial arm included about 40 to 45 women, all with low to moderate baseline calcium intake.
Lactating women in the first trial had a 4.2% decrease in lumbar-spine bone density with calcium, versus 4.9% with placebo, a nonsignificant difference. Nonlactating women had increases of 2.2% with calcium and 0.4% with pla…