Heather Rae El Moussa is opening up about being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after attributing her symptoms at first to “mom brain.” The Selling Sunset star, 36, got candid about her symptoms with Today.com, revealing that she first began noticing something was off when she noticed a drastic drop in her milk supply in conjunction with intense fatigue that left her feeling “dead.”
“My brain was so tired. My body was so tired. I was exhausted all the time and no amount of sleep could make it better,” The Flipping El Moussas star continued, making filming “absolutely brutal” because she could “barely get out of bed.” At first, Heather Rae attributed what was going on to being a new mom and having “mom brain,” as she and husband Tarek El Moussa, 42, welcomed their first child together, son Tristan, in January. (Tarek is also father to daughter Taylor, 13, and son Brayden, 8, with ex-wife, Christina Hall.)
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But with her milk supply plummeting, her lactation consultant suggested the reality personality get bloodwork done, which revealed what had really been going on. Doctors told Heather Rae that her pregnancy had triggered Hashimoto’s disease, a common autoimmune disorder in which your body makes antibodies that attack the cells in your thyroid, causing symptoms including exhaustion, weight gain and weakness, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Heather Rae was “in total shock” when she was first diagnosed, but after being prescribed medication, she’s feeling “much better.” As for her breastfeeding journey, 9-month-old Tristan is now eating baby purees and goat milk formula. “I would put him on my chest and he wouldn’t even try to suck. Then he’d start blowing bubbles,” Heather Rae said. “I still offer it to him – I offered it to him this morning, but he’s just not interested anymore. He’s a busy boy and he wants to be off playing.”
While the HGTV star misses her bonding time with her son, she’s relieved that ultimately he decided to stop nursing on his own. “It would have been so much harder if it were the other way around,” she said. As her own breastfeeding journey has come to an end unexpectedly, Heather Rae encourages her fellow mothers to celebrate whatever way they’ve been able to feed their babies. “I’ve heard so many women say, ‘I only breastfed 2 months,’ and that makes me feel sad. Why ‘only?’ You should feel so proud that you even did it at all!” she gushed.
