Lactation Cookies
'Lactation Cookies' are cookies that supposedly help to boost milk production in nursing mothers. Recipes vary, but the main ingredient seems to be oatmeal. So, they're essentially oatmeal cookies.
I heard about them for the first time yesterday, but they've been around for a number of decades. The oldest reference to them I could find was in a 1974 zoo keepers journal discussing ways to increase milk production in orangutans. However, interest in them has spiked in the last decade, and there are now bakeries that specialize in making them, such as here and here.
Do lactation cookies actually work? The jury is still out on that question. Wikipedia, in its article on galactogogues (lactation inducers), notes that "Herbals and foods used as galactogogues have little or no scientific evidence of efficacy." But on the other hand, what harm can an oatmeal cookie do? And maybe they'd work via the placebo effect.
Incidentally, Guinness beer has also long been rumored to induce lactation and was often given to nursing mothers in Ireland.
I heard about them for the first time yesterday, but they've been around for a number of decades. The oldest reference to them I could find was in a 1974 zoo keepers journal discussing ways to increase milk production in orangutans. However, interest in them has spiked in the last decade, and there are now bakeries that specialize in making them, such as here and here.
Do lactation cookies actually work? The jury is still out on that question. Wikipedia, in its article on galactogogues (lactation inducers), notes that "Herbals and foods used as galactogogues have little or no scientific evidence of efficacy." But on the other hand, what harm can an oatmeal cookie do? And maybe they'd work via the placebo effect.
Incidentally, Guinness beer has also long been rumored to induce lactation and was often given to nursing mothers in Ireland.
Comments
At least they should help keep you regularly eliminating at the other end. Be assured that you are getting your daily allowance of fiber.
Posted by KDP on 08/04/22 at 09:24 AM
Galactogogue sounds like the monster in a Japanese horror film.
Posted by ges on 08/04/22 at 10:11 AM
@ges -- It definitely has a "It came from the stars! In high-knee boots! It'll make you dance to 60s music while in a cage suspended from the ceiling!" vibe. Not the monsters we want, but maybe the monsters we need.
Posted by Phideaux on 08/04/22 at 11:51 AM
I can see Galactogogue in mortal combat with Elon Musk's Mechazilla Starship launch/retrieval tower. He should hurry; the towers are beginning to multiply.
Posted by Virtual in Carnate on 08/04/22 at 12:08 PM
In the case of Guinness, part of the (purported) reason is that Guinness, and stout in general, has a reputation for being full of nutrients. It's sometimes called "bread in liquid form". I doubt that reputation is all that accurate, but it does have it, and certainly a good stout tastes nutritious, unlike bitter or lager but like Belgian browns. And, of course, a breastfeeding mother can use all the nutrition she can get.
Posted by Richard Bos on 08/07/22 at 04:56 AM
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Category: Babies | Food | Body Fluids | Pregnancy