To induce lactation - cultural advice

Dasha420 · October 2015

Hello all. I've heard various pieces of advice from friends and family regarding foods to eat to induce lactation and milk production.

For example, drinking goose soup. Drinking hot water with some condensed milk in it. Drinking black tea with milk and sugar.
I know these come from our culture (Russian) so there are many more I haven't heard yet.

I also know there might be people who want scientific research to back this up so I will say this- these are cultural practices. Things that have been passed down from generation to generation so some people may not find this evidence based through empirical studies.

That being said has anyone heard of any other practices?

lest12 · October 2015

I think once you actually start nursing, there are many other practices that are recommended - power pumping is big. Don't give the baby a pacifier. Let baby nurse whenever necessary. Massaging breasts when nursing/pumping. Bed-share/night nurse. Drink lots of water.

Then there are plenty of supplements.... there's mother's tea, eating oatmeal, recipes for lactation cookies, fenugreek, and others.

Also, some things bother some nursing mother's, but not others. In my last BMB, a few women would say that their supply dropped the more they pumped, the more they exercised, anytime they tried to cut calories (but other women weren't bothered by these items at all).

When the time comes there will probably be a lot of trial and error. Just be careful... don't assume you will NEED to do all of these things right away... oversupply is just a big a problem as undersupply, you know?

Good luck!

camillaandcarson · October 2015

Oatmeal was powerful for my supply.

Dasha420 · October 2015

@lest12
When you mentioned mothers tea is that the red raspberry leaf tea?

Thanks for replying ladies!

>-

lest12 · October 2015

Not the red raspberry leaf tea - One like this: https://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Medicinals-Organic-Mothers-16-Count/dp/B0009F3POY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445353929&sr=8-1&keywords=mothers+mik+tea

This one says to have anise, fennel, coriander and fenugreek.

kbrands7 · October 2015

Oatmeal, anise, fennel, fenugreek, lots of water, enough calories/fat, night nursing power pumping (10min on, 10 off for an hour), brewer's yeast, massage/hand expression, skin to skin with baby are all things that helped me to keep my supply regular and to recover my supply quickly after a bad stomach virus.

megmarissa · October 2015

Lactation cookies

Yumm... beer...

Dasha420 · October 2015

@megmarissa lactation cookies? Hmmm. Sounds interesting. ;;)

camillaandcarson · October 2015

You can also freeze the cookies for later. Any oatmeal cookie recipe will do (at least it did in my case, they really helped!) although some add other ingredients too. There are tons of recipes for that purpose. I plan on making a bunch of oatmeal cookies shortly before my due date.

RanFan28 · October 2015

All of these foods/drinks are called galactagouges. You can google it and read all about them. However, I would highly recommend NOT spendibg a ton of time reading about that stuff just yet. If you are committed to nursing, read about latch, rooming in, skin to skin, tongue and lip ties, etc. you can learn about what increases your supply later if you need to know...

megmarissa · October 2015

@Dasha420 They are wonderful! Usually made with brewers yeast. You can make them or buy them at some specialty stores.

laurenmdrn16 · October 2015

One of my friends gave me a basket full of "lactation snacks" when she came to visit me in the hospital. It was awesome because I kept the whole basket by my pump. It had prewrapped oatmeal bars (they were from Trader Joe's I think and had oatmeal as a 1st ingredient and very little sugar/crappy stuff), water bottles, and homemade lactation cookies with brewer's yeast, fenugreek, and oatmeal. Also, fenugreek is the thing in fake maple syrup that gives it a maple-y flavor, so using artificial maple syrup can help boost your supply.

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