I’m the mom of a very sweet, smart, sassy, and (honestly) skinny little girl. She was born at a whopping 6 pounds to her 21-inch frame. Skinny! So, in my efforts to breastfeed my daughter, lactation cookies played a big part in trying to fatten her up.

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Don’t be afraid of the name. Anyone can eat these cookies without spontaneously spraying milk everywhere. My daughter has been weaned for a little over a year now, and I still eat a couple when I make them for friends. They’re really tasty!

Just as a reminder: I am not a doctor. Just because these cookies work for me, it does not mean they will work for you. This is not intended as medical advice. If you are experiencing issues with lactation, please consult a doctor or specialist.

Tasty, Healthy Ingredients Galore

The idea behind these is that they are packed with ingredients that help make mother’s milk a little more nutritious. While they make a wonderful dessert, you’ll feel much less guilty knowing that you’re getting several wonderful benefits from them.

Oats, flax, chia, apricots, dates… these are all excellent sources of fiber. Aside from the most well-known benefit of helping “move things along,” fiber is also beneficial for steadying blood sugar levels, supporting metabolism, and feeding beneficial gut bacteria.

Flax and Chia seeds and Walnuts are wonderful sources of plant-based Omega 3 ALA, which is great for brain and heart health when paired with DHA (which you might want to take a fish oil supplement to get). The verdict is still out on if these nutrients actually help baby’s brain development, but they’re good for you anyway.

Coconut oil is praised for having a million benefits. You could probably rub it on your wallet and it’d suddenly have $100 in it… haha! I kid… but most notably, the lauric acid in this oil works in your body to prevent viral, bacterial, and yeast infections, and it also transfers into your breastmilk, thereby supporting your baby’s immune system.

What Makes These “Lactation Cookies?”

The foods listed above are also considered “lactogenic foods”. Oats, flax seeds, chia seeds, apricots, dates, and coconut oil all have the magical ability to boost milk supply. This is mostly my word, here, as I did a search on Pinterest to see what foods were good for breastfeeding and these were common to several lists, like this one.

I’d recommend you read up and do further research, or consult a lactation specialist if you feel inclined to. A couple of things you could experiment with are brewer’s yeast and fenugreek, although, I don’t think either tastes great in a cookie. You might also find that your baby gets cranky when you eat chocolate. Just leave the chips out, or replace them with dried blueberries.

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Do Lactation Cookies Work?

As for how well these cookies work, let me share a little of my story. For the first few months, while I was on maternity leave, I was an over-producer. There were days I’d pump out a half-gallon of milk on top of breastfeeding.

Unfortunately, when you produce a large quantity of milk, it tends to be very watery at first and the fat only comes out toward the end. That meant that if I wanted my baby to get enough fat, I needed to pump a lot first. As a long term goal, I needed to reduce my supply for less volume but denser nutrition.

When I started back on Weight Watchers, there was a minor dip in my supply, but it was when I started back to work and sent Cub to daycare that it really dropped.

Like, it actually decreased so much I was concerned my baby wasn’t getting enough to eat at all. It would take twice as long for her to eat. When I pumped it’d take an age to get enough out for her to have milk at daycare.

Anyways, I freaked out and made a big batch of these cookies and proceeded to eat them all in a week.

My Personal Results from Lactation Cookies

After the first day, I noticed that I was letting down much harder and was getting a lot fuller. Not only that, I took the time to pump to get a little relief and found that my milk had a healthy head of fat at the top (after refrigeration allowed it to separate).

I’ve since leveled out a little more and found a better balance to make sure I’m not WAY overproducing and that the Cub gets enough fat. It might just be me, but I love that jello-y texture of a thick fat head on a bottle of milk.

A Note to the New Moms

If you are struggling with your milk supply to the point where you’ve sought intervention with a lactation specialist, and you’re trying yet another lactation cookies recipe, I want to offer you a lifeline.

Feel free to message me to vent about how much this whole thing sucks. I’m a judgment-free stranger who knows how badly you need to scream your frustration to the world. No matter how cute your baby is or how well they sleep, you are more than allowed to be tired and pent-up.

Additionally, if you need someone to tell you this: it’s okay if you’re already ready to quit breastfeeding. You don’t have to nurse your baby to 18 months, and you don’t have to pump yourself dry to be a good mom.

But Back to Lactation Cookies…

All that said. These cookies might work for you. They helped me as a temporary fix any week that I ate a whole batch of them. And, let’s be really honest, if you’re a new mom and you don’t want to nurse, cannot nurse, or are about to quit nursing, go ahead and make yourself a batch of cookies.

Being a new mom is hard AF and you deserve some freaking cookies.

So, give it a try, and let me know in the comments how it works for you. And if you’re not lactating but want to try them anyways, let me know how you like them! And, as always, remember to subscribe!