You may have been advised to follow a special diet or eat certain things to make your milk more nutritious or to increase milk supply.
But actually the science of building milk supply is not that complicated. If you’re eating a nutritionally balanced meal you have nothing to worry about. Despite countless articles that warn you about the signs that your milk isn’t nutritious enough, what you eat or do has very little impact on your milk.
In fact, breastmilk is made in the breasts, directly from a mother’s blood. It is not made directly from the food she eats.
Breastmilk is a living substance that evolves in sync with the needs of a baby at every feed. It contains vital nutrients, immunity building cells and stem cells, food for healthy gut bacteria and many other health factors that cannot be replicated. These do not change with an individual’s diet.
Moreover we know even people who experience famine conditions still produce milk providing optimal nutrition for their babies.
Off course eating a couple of oatmeal cookies to keep your milk supply up won’t do any harm. It’s just not as essential as the milk cookie brands claim they are.
So what should you do to increase your milk supply and to protect it? Nurse on! Don’t forget milk supply is based on supply and demand. The more you nurse, the more milk you will have.
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