Best Lactation Supplements to Keep Milk Flowing

Frequently Asked Questions About Lactation Supplements

In this section, we’ll answer some of the most common questions new mothers have about low milk supply and taking a lactation supplement.

What Ingredients Help Produce Breast Milk?

There are a few different natural ingredients that are commonly used to help improve milk production. The amount of research on their effectiveness is, unfortunately, often limited.

However, in this section, we’ll do our best to compile the latest and most reliable information on each of the active ingredients found in the list of lactation supplements above.

Fenugreek

Fenugreek is a potent galactagogue that’s found in most of the lactation supplements you’ll see on the market. It’s one of the most effective and most well-researched herbal galactagogue.

Some research suggests that fenugreek is most effective when you drink it rather than take it in capsule form. However, all methods of consumption have shown positive results.

Despite its popularity, you’ll also see a few brands touting their fenugreek-free formulas. The reason is that, while it’s safe, some people are sensitive to it, especially when taken in the high doses necessary to get the galactagogue effects. It can lead to nausea and decreased glucose levels in the mother and diarrhea in the baby.

None of these side effects are life-threatening, so it’s worth trying out a fenugreek lactation supplement to start. Just pay close attention to changes in your digestion and your baby’s stool for the first week or two.

If you notice any of these symptoms in yourself or your newborn, switch to a fenugreek-free formula like Sweetbottoms Moringa.

Moringa

Moringa has become an increasingly popular alternative for those who experience gastrointestinal discomfort from taking fenugreek. Only a couple of studies have been done, but they all suggest that it does have a noticeable effect on milk production.

In addition to being a natural galactagogue, moringa also contains a lot of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. This makes it both a lactation and nutritional supplement, all in one ingredient.

There are also no known side effects to taking moringa, and it doesn’t seem to create any complications with other medications you might be taking. This lack of side effects and drug interactions are the key reasons why it’s becoming such a popular alternative to fenugreek.

Of course, you should still pay attention for signs of potential reactions even though there are no known side effects. This is especially important if you’re taking moringa in a blended formula with other ingredients that may come with their own side effects.

Milk Thistle and Blessed Thistle

Milk thistle is another popular galactagogue that has some scientific research to back it up. However, it isn’t absorbed well when taken orally so you may need higher doses to see an effect. This is why it’s more often found as one ingredient in a blend rather than as a standalone supplement.

Blessed thistle contains a few different compounds that may help increase milk supply. More research is needed before these claims can be verified.

It’s often found in blends with fenugreek and other galactagogues.

Both types of thistle are safe and mostly side effect free. However, those with allergies to plants in the ragweed family may experience an allergic reaction to thistle. The ragweed family includes:

• Melons
• Banana
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Artichoke
• Kiwi
• Chamomile
• Echinacea
• Daisies

If you are allergic to any of those, you should probably avoid supplements that contain blessed thistle.

Fennel

Fennel is not technically a galactagogue like the other herbal ingredients on this list. Instead, it contains oils like anethole and phytoestrogen which encourage your breasts to express. If your breasts feel full but you’re struggling to actually express the milk, fennel can help.

While there are no serious side effects to taking fennel, there is a potential for an allergic reaction if you are allergic celery, carrots, or other apiaceae family plants.

Lecithin

Like fennel, lecithin is also not a galactagogue. It’s a milk thinner. This is helpful if the problem you have isn’t the amount of milk, you’re producing but that it’s too thick or sticky to effectively express from your breast.

It’s a safe, natural ingredient that is derived most often from soybeans or egg yolks. If you find yourself regularly experiencing plugged milk ducts, a lecithin supplement like Legendary Milk can help.

Oats

While no research exists on whether oats act as a galactagogue of any kind, we do know that they improve your body’s ability to deliver nutrients to different parts of the body, including mammary glands.

So, oatmeal-based cookies like the ones you can make with this lactation cookie mix can increase the nutritional quality of your breastmilk by delivering more of those nutrients to your mammary glands.

A similar effect can be achieved by eating a bowl of oatmeal right after taking a capsule supplement. Since capsules sometimes have lower absorption rates, oatmeal can help offset that.

When Should I Start Taking Lactation Supplements?

You should wait at least five days after delivery to try a lactation supplement. This is because lactation doesn’t usually begin immediately after birth. Moreover, the amount of milk your body produces starts low and gradually increases over time. This is often in line with the nutritional needs of your newborn so it’s not necessarily a bad sign.

Before beginning lactation supplements, check for signs that you are, indeed, producing too little milk for your baby.

Signs of Low Milk Supply

It’s not easy to measure the exact amount of milk your baby is getting. Even if you could, you wouldn’t be able to tell the exact amount that they need. However, when babies aren’t eating enough, they tend to make that known.

Here are some signs that your baby may not be getting enough breastmilk:

Insufficient Weight Gain

Newborns will lose up to 10% of their bodyweight in the first few days after birth. So don’t panic immediately unless their weight loss is more than 10% of their starting weight. After the first week, babies start to gain a little under a ½ pound per week.

If your baby hasn’t started gaining any weight by day six, contact your doctor immediately. If it is a result of low milk supply, lactation supplements will help but using formula to supplement the shortage until you can get your production up to where it needs to be may also be necessary.

Too Few Dirty Diapers

If your baby isn’t pooping enough, they probably aren’t eating enough either. By month two, breastfed babies usually poop about four times per day. Formula-fed babies tend to poop less often.

If you’re using a combination of both, seeing only one or two bowel movements a day isn’t cause for concern.

Rather than measuring to a standard, just look for changes in your baby’s frequency. Are wet diapers lighter than they usually are? Are poopy diapers less frequent than they used to be? These might be signs of insufficient breast milk.

Symptoms of Dehydration

Babies rely on breastmilk for both hydration and nutrition. However, symptoms of dehydration often become noticeable sooner than symptoms of malnutrition. So, they’re useful symptoms to watch out for to make sure your baby is getting enough breastmilk.

Key symptoms to look for include:

• dark urine
• dry mouth
• lethargic behavior
• reluctance to nurse.

If your baby shows these symptoms, talk to your doctor right away to rule out illnesses or infections. If these symptoms aren’t the cause of an infection or illness, they may be the result of low milk supply.

False Signs of Low Milk Supply

As new parents, it’s easy to get worried about anything and everything. Any slight change can cause panic. If you’re worried about your milk production, there’s a pretty good chance this is just normal new parent panic. Here are some common issues that are perfectly normal but that new parents tend to mistake for signs of low milk supply:

Baby Wants to Nurse Too Often

In the first couple months, newborns tend to nurse between 8-12 times per day, including in the middle of the night. This is partially because they’re growing and need a lot of milk but also because they’re newborns and haven’t fully perfected the art of breastfeeding yet.

As stressful as it can be to breastfeed every two hours or so for months, this frequent nursing will also help stimulate your milk ducts and trigger more milk production.

Pumping also helps, and keeping bottles of breastmilk in the fridge can allow someone else to help with the feedings while you get some much-deserved rest.

Ideally, you want to start nursing before they launch into full-blown crying. Crying babies have a harder time latching.

Changes in Breast Firmness

If your breasts start to soften, you might mistake that for emptiness. However, as you continue to breastfeed, your breasts will naturally soften, even though they are still producing plenty of milk. By the time your breasts are fully producing, it’s normal for that initial firmness to go away.

Pumping After Feeding Yields Little Milk

Babies are more efficient at breastfeeding than you might give them credit for. If you’re pumping shortly after breastfeeding and getting nothing, it’s because your baby probably got most of it. Wait at least 1 ½ hours after nursing to pump.

Your Baby Is Fussy

Their diaper’s fresh. They’ve just had a good nap. They’ve just been nursed. Yet, they’re still fussing. Many new parents assume they must still be hungry. But some babies just fuss more than others.

If they don’t show any other signs of low milk supply, it’s likely not hunger. In fact, babies will also cry if they’ve been overfed. Bloated tummies aren’t comfortable, after all.

Before you jump to conclusions, rule out common causes of unexplained crying in newborns.

Your Breasts Aren’t Leaking Anymore

This doesn’t mean you’re producing less. It just means your nipples aren’t being falsely triggered to express anymore.

When you first start producing milk, leaking is common because any stimulation to the nipple can be mistaken for a “time to nurse” signal, and your breasts just haven’t fully figured out how to time milk release yet.

After a month or so, your breasts get better at the art of releasing milk at the right time, so leaks happen less. It has nothing to do with the quantity of milk being produced.

Even if you are producing plenty of milk, lactation supplements won’t hurt and can still improve the nutritional quality of your milk.

Supplements like Legendary Milk that are specifically designed to help with clogged milk ducts can also be good to have on hand, even if you’re producing enough milk. Clogs can happen, and they can also be painful.

What Causes Low Milk Supply?

If you’re struggling to produce enough milk, there could be a lot of different causes. In this section, we’ll look at some of the most common reasons for decreased milk supply:

Skipping Night Feedings

Some parenting books recommend sleep training methods that involve skipping those middle-of-the-night feedings. However, this can lead to a decrease in milk production. The decrease in breastfeeding time triggers hormonal changes in your body that tell it to produce less milk.

Basically, your body is designed to produce milk based on demand. The more you breastfeed, the more it produces. The less you breastfeed, the less it produces.

If you do want to sleep train your baby, you might consider pumping more often between feedings to maintain a sufficient milk supply.

Not Pumping Often Enough

When breasts are full, the milk ducts stop producing new milk. The longer you allow them to remain full, the longer your ducts go without producing new milk. As with skipping night feedings, this signals to your body that the demand for milk has decreased.

So it will start slowing production. On the other hand, when breasts are closer to empty, this triggers the milk ducts to start producing more to fill them again. Even if you have your baby on a feeding schedule, we recommend pumping in between feeding times to prevent your breasts from being full for too long.

Anti-Galactagogue Ingredients

Certain herbs can slow or even stop milk production. These are so effective, in fact, that these same herbs are usually recommended when you are ready to stop breastfeeding. However, until then, you should avoid them, that includes making sure you don’t cook with them.

Common ingredients in our diet that act as anti-galactagogues include:

• Sage
• Parsley
• Peppermint
• Oregano
• Thyme

Insufficient Glandular Tissue

For various reasons, some breasts don’t develop enough milk-producing ducts to meet their baby’s needs. Both pumping and breastfeeding will stimulate new growth so the solution here is to just keep at it. Supplements can help speed up that process, though.

Pre-Existing Conditions

Health issues including diabetes, hypertension, or thyroid problems can all affect hormonal regulation. Because hormones tell your body to produce milk, these conditions can cause low milk supply.

Typically, taking steps to treat or manage the pre-existing condition will usually resolve the low milk production as well.

However, certain medications aren’t safe to take while breastfeeding, which is when lactation supplements like Pure Mom come in handy.

Breast Surgery

Both medically necessary and cosmetic surgery can permanently damage milk ducts. The amount of damage caused depends on the surgery. If severe enough, even supplements may not be enough to generate enough milk supply, so you might need to use a combination of breast milk and formula.

Hormonal Birth Control

Having used hormonal birth control in the past will not influence milk production but using it while breastfeeding can. It doesn’t cause noticeable changes for everyone, though.

It’s most likely to cause low milk supply if you began the hormonal birth control in the first four months of your newborn’s life. To prevent this, consider sticking to nonhormonal birth control until you’ve finished breastfeeding.

Certain Medications

Certain medications, including many cold medicines, can prevent milk production. The list of medications you shouldn’t take while breastfeeding is too long to repeat here. Instead, we recommend checking with your doctor before starting any new medication, even over the counter medicine.

If you suffer from chronic issues like migraines, back pain, heart issues, or mental illness, talk with your doctor before you start breastfeeding to come up with a list of safe medications and treatment options to manage those chronic issues while breastfeeding.

Medications Used in Labor

If you got an epidural or Demerol during labor, this could temporarily decrease your baby’s ability to latch. Depending on how long the epidural was in or how much Demerol was used, these effects can last as long as a month.

In this case, it’s not actually a milk production issue. It’s your baby’s ability to latch. During that first month, it may be necessary to pump regularly and rely on bottles until your baby regains the ability to breastfeed effectively.

Other Convenient Products to Use While Breastfeeding

In addition to lactation supplements, you can also make the breastfeeding process easier and less painful with these other products:

• Nipple Creams. Regular breastfeeding can lead to chafing, soreness, and even bleeding. Nipple creams are designed to heal and soothe those symptoms without being dangerous for your baby.
• Bottles for Breastfed Babies. Keeping a couple bottles filled with breast milk can help new parents split the feeding responsibility better and prevent the nipple chafing and soreness that often comes with breastfeeding.
• Nursing Bras. Nursing bras are a must for comfort and convenience while breastfeeding.
• Nursing Pillows. These take some of the pressure off your arm when supporting your baby’s head while breastfeeding.

Final Word

Lactation supplements are a safe way to add a boost of vitamins to your breast milk, prevent blocked milk ducts, and increase total milk supply. Choosing the best formula for you comes down to which of those priorities is at the top of your list. Remember to also take any allergies or sensitivities you have into account!