If you only read one BF post today, this is the one, because the message is very important. Low milk supply (or ‘perceived low supply’ in many cases) is a huge concern for nursing moms. You can’t measure breastmilk, and moms have so little confidence in their ability to produce enough milk that they stress about it a lot. Many moms are balancing BF and work, and their lifestyles are hectic. Pumping enough milk at work to meet the baby’s needs can be challenging. Moms will do just about anything to ramp up their milk production. This is where the problem comes in. Mommy blogs and BF pages on FB provide great mother to mother support, which is a wonderful thing. However, when a question is posted, well-meaning moms who are trying to be supportive jump in happily and give their advice. That’s all well and good, but too often the advice they give is not helpful, and in some cases may even be harmful. Today I was on a BF page that I really like. A question was posted asking moms what foods they used to increase their milk supply. In this one post, these suggestions were made: corn, granola bars, massive amounts of water, dark beer, hemp oil, rolled oats, steel cut oats, lemon water, Gatorade, tons of water, green tea, parsley , hot chocolate, flapjacks, plenty of water, oysters, champagne, coconut water, green tea, tons of water, arugula, orange juice, carrot juice, almonds, tons of water, seaweed, red pepper, cantaloupe, Reese’s peanut butter cups, water, water, and more water. Oh, and my favorite: “Lactation Cookies”. There are recipes all over the internet. Think about this logically: if eating cookies of any type could increase mom’s milk supply, then don’t you think that every mom would eat them, and be plump and happy and produce copious amounts of milk? If you could eat a certain food and increase your production, don’t you think it would be common knowledge? And if increasing milk production was as simple as drinking lots of water, don’t you think moms would just do that instead of trading cookie recipes and buying supplements? I am here to tell you this: Eating oatmeal cookies will not increase your milk supply, and neither will eating/drinking the foods on that list. Despite the fact that millions of moms apparently still believe it, drinking water has nothing to do with how much milk you produce. Increasing milk supply is a multifaceted problem that has a number of causes and solutions, but none of them involve eating a certain food or drinking lots of water. I’ve been helping nursing moms for over 30 years , nursed all 6 if my babies, was a LLLLeader for over 20 years, and have been an IBCLC for over 20 years. I have one of the top 10 BF websites in the world, and over 15 million nursing moms visit it each year to read my articles. The most popular article by far is “Increasing Your Milk Supply”. It’s 9 pages long, and has very detailed, evidence based information about the multiple causes of low production and ways to increase milk output. What it doesn’t have is gimmicks, or recipes for lactation cookies, or ads for supplements to increase milk supply. I have information about herbs like Fenugreek that have been shown to be effective in boosting supply in some moms, but I also include info about the safety of these herbs. For example, Fenugreek should NOT be used by pregnant women or diabetics. One of the moms posting in the above mentioned thread said that she took Fenugreek during the last days of her pregnancy, and then suggested drinking ‘massive amounts of water – 60-80 oz a day’. Not good advice at all. If you are serious about increasing your supply, read my article, or go to Kelly Mom, or Dr. Jack Newman. Don’t believe everything you see in a mommy blog. The advice given there is other mom’s opinions, not evidence based advice from a lactation professional. I hate to see women misled into thinking that if they buy supplements, or cookies, or teas, or drink tons of water, they will see an increase in supply. Most of these products won’t do any harm, but they also won’t magically make you produce more milk, either. If you want to eat oatmeal, it won’t hurt. It’s cheap, it’s good for you, and some moms think it helps, so why not give it a try? That’s very different from buying “Lactation Cookies”, or spending money on supplements that make outrageous claims about how they can increase your milk output. Make sure that when it comes to something as important as providing your precious baby with mama’s milk, you don’t buy into gimmicks that you don’t need and that will have no effect on your milk supply. Choose reliable sources when you are getting breastfeeding information, and don’t rely on mommy blogs. Anne Smith, IBCLC breastfeedingbasics
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 05:20:17 +0000
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