Using foods and herbs to boost milk supply

A couple weeks in with exclusively pumping, I still wasn't meeting all of my daughter's needs with breast milk. This was incredibly frustrating for me because I didn't want anything to do with formula and every time I made a bottle with it I felt like a failure because I couldn't make enough.

So I decided to see if I could use herbs to increase my supply.

I started with fenugreek. It's well known as an herb to help stimulate more breast milk, especially if it is combined with nursing/pumping often. And it makes your sweat and urine smell like maple syrup. sweet. It originates from India and is a popular spice in many dishes. The seed is where the good stuff is. From what I read, it is important to get organic fenugreek because it is good quality.

I think the fenugreek actually made a difference. I took it for ten days-- three capsules, three times a day. I was keeping track of my production at that point, and I was making between 20 and 26 oz per day, which was still about a bottle (4oz) short of what my baby required of me. But it didn't make a huge difference.

When I quit using it, my supply maintained itself.

From my research online, many women experience great increases from using herbs, specifically fenugreek. And many experience little or no effect (one could say that it is a placebo effect, and maybe that's what I had).

My second round of herbs was after a consultation with the WIC lactation consultant. She encouraged me to do a couple different things to attempt to increase my milk supply--power pumping, skin to skin contact, breast massage and compression before and during pumping, hand expression after pumping, and to get more milk plus (www.motherlove.com) to help with the supply.

More milk plus is a mixture of herbs, including fenugreek, blessed thistle, fennel, and nettle herb.

If you purchase more milk plus, be aware the taste is no walk in a park. It's an herbal tincture in alcohol. It is very bitter. What makes it harder for some to take is that the manufacturers suggest for optimal use, consume no more than 1-2oz of liquid for fifteen minutes before or after use. Luckily there are capsule forms of the same mixture if you cannot handle bad tasting things.

I used this one mL, four times a day, and it also didn't make much of a difference. I maintained my milk supply. I ran out of it quickly, and then did not continue use.

My last hoorah, which was slightly wimpy and not truly effortful, was with brewer's yeast, in the form of lactation cookies. I bought a nice can of brewer's yeast from our local supermarket, and added six tablespoons of it to my lactation cookie recipe (found here). And ate a large amount of cookies (in fact, most of them, and gained weight this week (ugh postpartum weight loss) and still didn't see a great supply increase. THe cookies were wonderful, healthy and wholesome (I used honey instead of sugar and they have oatmeal and flax in them, as well as whole wheat flour).

The cool thing with the left over brewer's yeast is that is has a great amount of protein and is absolutely FULL of vitamin B and amino acids. So it's super good for you! I will continue using it in my diet to promote health (and get good protein not from meat or animal products!)

Other goods that are supposed galactogues are oatmeal and flax, and I've read great things about barley (but haven't tried any of them). I've also read about goat's rue, and that's one herb I'm a bit more skiddish about.

Overall, there were only a few things that helped--one was pumping more often, and the other using the right sized flanges. But I am not everyone, and many different herbs have been very successful for some women. Here is a very helpful article on increasing milk supply: http://www.breastfeedingbasics.com/articles/increasing-your-milk-supply

How about you? Have you had success with herbs? Which ones? How about goat's rue? What have you read on it/experienced with it?