Milk & Cookies

Let's just go ahead and get this out of the way now. I am breast feeding. I am not nursing, and have only nursed about four times since coming home from the hospital. Thanks to a somewhat stranger from a message board I'm on, I am exclusively pumping with a Medela double pump. Anyway, that only has a little something to do with this cookie recipe.

I posted on the previously mentioned message board about having a low milk supply. I've heard of all kinds of herbal supplements that can help like fenugreek, mother's milk tea, and blessed thistle - all things that apparently taste horrible, have disgusting side effects, and often don't even work to help increase milk supply.
Someone on the message board mentioned beer, and in the same post told me to google "lactation cookies".

The main ingredients in this recipe? Oats, which are said to help increase milk supply. Brewer's yeast which (when you open the can the first time) smells absolutely horrific but you don't notice the taste of it in these cookies....

And then there is flaxseed meal which MckMama uses a lot but apparently my good friend Amy thinks is disgusting. I bet she's never even tried it....

Anyway, I only had to buy the brewer's yeast (at your local health food or GNC store), the flaxseed meal (at the grocery store on the baking aisle) and oats to make these cookies. So with my husband's approval to at least give them a go, we bought all the items needed and I made them yesterday afternoon.

I don't know if they work. I've read mixed reviews, mainly ones that say they do work - some women seem to think they work instantly, others it takes a few days or a few batches. The recommended "dosage" is four cookies per day, and one recipe makes between 4-6 dozen cookies. Personally, I think it depends on how big/small you make your cookies. I filled a gallon sized ziploc bag with mine, and then rethought it and put them in airtight containers.

They taste awesome. I've read some other blogs where people have made them just to eat them, not needing the lactation assistance. And from what I've read about brewer's yeast and flaxseed meal, despite the fact that these are cookies - they are kind of good for you!

Happy "official" One month birthday to Baby James!!!