For many (or dare I say, most) lactating individuals or new parents, having enough milk is a huge concern. A common question I hear is ‘what if I haven’t got enough milk for my baby?’ followed by ‘what can I eat to increase my milk supply?’. And the sheer terrible advice I see in online parent’s groups and social media comments sections, don’t even get me started.

First of all, please know that even if you have true low supply (that is, your body can only create less than what your baby needs to be exclusively fed your milk) every little bit is beneficial. A single mL of your milk contains over a hundred thousand white blood cells! And second of all, I am sorry - there’s no magical tea or biscuit or hot chocolate that has enough evidence to prove it’s guaranteed to increase milk supply.

Table of contents:

What are galactagogues?
Some common galactagogues
How to actually increase milk supply
But I don’t have time to eat a balanced meal
Resources

An artistic representation of a milk supply in freezer bags.

What are galactagogues?

Galactagogues are foods, medicines, herbs, that are said to increase milk supply. They are understudied and not really scientifically proven to work. People who sell you lactation cookies, teas, hot chocolates - they are almost scamming you. And that’s a pretty big accusation to make, so they may not be scamming you on purpose. Oftentimes when someone anecdotally swears they work it could be like a placebo (you think it works, so it does) or maybe they are calorically deprived (not eating enough to sustain the extra energy making milk while trying to look after the family and household and work outside the home etc). There are lots of reasons why something might work for someone, and this post isn’t actually saying that it doesn’t work.

Many galactagogues including food and medicines basically work by increasing the secretion of prolactin, the hormone responsible for making milk (and also a lot of other bodily functions - everyone has prolactin, all of the time). However, if your (perceived, or actual) low milk supply is not caused by low prolactin levels, these ain’t gonna make a difference.

Some common galactagogues

There are a lot of common galactagogues but I don’t want this post to go on for too long (I personally love reading wordy blog posts but I know not everyone does) so I’ve chosen just a few to talk about. Write a comment if there’s one particular one you’d like to know more about!

Oats

I remember reading through a comment thread on a post on Instagram and someone mentioned they ate a bowl of oatmeal like 8 times a day in a desperate attempt to increase their milk supply. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work. Also can you imagine eating that much porridge every day? It is not sustainable.

Oats are one of the most popular (and cheap and accessible) milk supply boosters. It is thought that the fiber in oats (beta-glucan) helps to increase prolactin. Some also claim that the high iron content in oats (⅓ cup dry rolled oats has approximately 17% of the daily recommended amount of iron) helps boost milk supply as low iron can negatively affect lactation. Red meat has way more absorbable iron in it but I guess it depends if you’d rather eat porridge or a steak? Another claim is that oatmeal is comforting, therefore helps release more oxytocin. Tell that to the poor soul eating 8 bowls a day. Comfort via torture?

Seriously though, eat as many oats as you like. I eat porridge nearly every day during the winter time and I like biscuits that have rolled oats in it (good texture!). It never made a difference to my milk supply but that doesn’t mean it won’t make a difference to yours.

Oreos

Unfortunately there is absolutely no scientific data to prove the relationship between Oreos and milk supply - however a bazillion people say it works. There are a few theories why they could work. They contain soy lecithin, and lecithin (sunflower, soy, whatever) is thought to help milk flow a little better. It turns out it’s actually choline - a component of lecithin - that does this. Choline is found in eggs, meat, dairy, fish, potatoes, cruciferous vegetables (and others). It can also be bought as a supplement - I have not found it by itself in Australia at all.

Another theory is the oxytocin theory I mentioned with the oats, because Oreos bring joy. That’s fair. And of course, extra calories from snacking on something delicious. Did you know some of the flavours are ninja vegan? Eat as many Oreos as you like, it’s not going to hurt. Might make your poop really dark though.

Fenugreek

Fenugreek is a herb similar to clover that belongs to the legume family. The seeds are used in foods as a spice and also in medicines. It smells a lot like maple syrup but if eaten raw it is very very bitter. Grinding and cooking the seeds as part of a spice mix in foods is what’s normally done, and it’s a common ingredient in South and West Asian cooking. It’s been used in many different regions of the world as a galactagogue, however scientific research is limited and has varied results. It’s a common ingredient in teas marketed for milk production. Some parents report an increase in milk supply after use, but some also report a decrease. Another study showed almost 50% of participants reported adverse side effects from using fenugreek (nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, flatulence, tachycardia, allergic reactions, exacerbations of asthma and others). If you eat enough of it, it can make your milk, poo, and sweat smell like maple syrup (is this a bad thing? Lol).

Based on the above, I would not recommend eating it in excess for the purpose of increasing milk supply. Use it in your cooking as per recipes and it’ll be harmless (unless you are allergic to it - If you already have a peanut allergy I’d be cautious with fenugreek).

How to actually increase milk supply - and it's still not guaranteed!

I can’t ethically tell you to buy this or eat that and it’ll make you make 100mL more milk per session. That is dodgy marketing and I am not about that. However, what you can try is the following:

Eating well and eating enough*
Hydrate

drink to thirst - more water does not = more milk.
Aim for anywhere between 2-3L a day
You are likely to actually feel thirstier while lactating which helps encourage fluid intake
Watery food, fruits, and vegetables count
And yes, tea and coffee counts as fluids but also make you pee more

Nurse or pump frequently

If nursing, follow Baby’s feeding cues
Cluster feeding is Baby’s innate way of making more milk, it doesn’t mean you don’t have enough
Some say shorter pump sessions more times throughout the day is better, others say longer sessions less times over the day…every body’s body is different

If using a pump even if only once a week…get properly sized for flanges. A mm makes a difference. (Book a flange fitting consult with me here!)
Try power pumping once a day.

It’s supposed to mimic Baby’s cluster feeding.
It’s usually recommended to go 20 min pump, 10 min rest, 10 min pump, 10 min rest, 10 min pump, stop. You can try that or try any combination of minutes pumping and rest, it doesn’t actually matter - babies don’t go 20, 10, 10. Babies do whatever they want.
It should take a few days to a week or two to see any increase - don’t do it for longer than 2 weeks. It’s not sustainable - ask me how I know.

If nursing, pump or hand express for 5-10 mins after, even if nothing comes out.
If mainly or only pumping, hand express after each session as above.
Try gentle compressions during pumping or nursing.
Consider booking an appointment with a lactation professional (IBCLC, CLC) to do a thorough assessment of you and your baby. There are a myriad of reasons one might have less milk than they’d like, and general information like this list isn’t suitable for everyone. A professional will assess you and Baby, including your medical history, family history, previous lactation experiences, your pregnancy and birth, latch, milk transfer, what you have tried so far, surgeries and MORE. See my service offerings HERE and if none of those sound like what you need, send me an email or use my contact form to let me know.

*Who here has gotten to bed time and realised you’ve only eaten a bit of toast crust, three room temperature coffees and a packet of biscuits? a) that’s not enough food/calories - you need an extra 400-500 calories than you usually would eat; and b) I need you all to know that it doesn’t actually matter how good or shit your diet is for your milk quality**. For example, if your diet is low in calcium, it will be pulled from your bones. The nutrients, vitamins, minerals that milk contains is pulled from your body. Food choices during lactation are for YOU, not the milk, not the baby. Look after YOU.

**Please note, if you are vegan/vegetarian and eat little to no natural sources of Vitamin B12 - found in food of animal origin, and a vegetarian product called ‘nutritional yeast’ - your chest or breastfed baby is at risk of deficiency which negatively affects brain, nerve, and blood cell development. In this case you will need to take a supplement and monitor your blood B12 levels with your doctor.

But I don't have time to eat a balanced meal

I know. I’ve been there too. I could barely walk around my very small house after I gave birth, the thought of making a healthy meal 3 times a day was beyond me. My wife was tired too - they’d stood with me my entire labour and delivery giving me sips of Solo and letting me squeeze their hands off, while suffering from severe back pain from a herniated disc. I may have been pumping and making bottles and washing pump parts but they were up with Baby all day and all night, changing nappies, and feeding, and burping and Googling things and texting their lactation consultant friend and making sure I got a nice hot shower every single day, and feeding me, and they even frequently made my chai - not just a tea bag, it was traditional chai with a homemade spice mix boiled on the stove.

We both ate a lot of simple sandwich wraps those early postpartum weeks, which are featured in a freebie I’ve created for you! It’s a printable .pdf full of simple, very low effort, pretty well balanced postpartum meal (and snack) ideas.

Download it here! All I ask in return is your email address…no spam whatsoever will be sent out on my email list! But if you don’t want to do that, I also have the .pdf available for a very small price in my shop here.

When I say low effort, I mean low effort. Most of it you don’t even need to chop anything. You know those posts and it’s like, ‘here’s my easy go-to middle of the week lazy meal!’ and the first thing they do is milk their personal goat (or chop an onion)? None of that here. I utilise packaged and pre-cut food in these examples because I believe packaged food has a time and place, and that time and place is postpartum. Packaged food and ingredients is a tool, the same way screen time or dummies are a tool. These are ‘recipes’ that I use all the time even now when I just don’t have it in me to do something elaborate. You of course don’t have to use the packaged versions of the ingredients, feel free to make from scratch (for example, if the ‘recipe’ has pre-marinated tofu/chicken, you can buy plain and do your own marinade).

All the ‘recipes’ include protein, and I’ll be writing a post another time on what key nutrients postpartum parents should focus on so they can thrive, not just survive.