Nobody Told Me That Most Lactation Supplements Weren’t Formulated by Someone Who Read the Research

This article is part of the Nella Vosk Breastfeeding Nutrition & Milk Supply: Evidence-Based Guide for Australian Mothers — your comprehensive resource on nourishing yourself and your baby through every stage of the feeding journey.

This article is part of Nella Vosk’s Nobody Told Me series — a growing collection of posts about the information gap that too many mothers encounter after birth. Every article in this series starts from a moment a mother wasn’t told something she needed to know, and works back through the clinical truth behind it. You can find the full series at nellavosk.com.au/pages/nobody-told-me.

Nobody told me that most lactation products weren’t formulated by someone who had actually read the research.

When I was struggling with supply in the early weeks, I did what most new mothers do: I started searching. I found lactation teas. Lactation cookies. Lactation capsules. Lactation blends with twelve ingredients whose names I couldn’t pronounce. The packaging was warm and confident. The claims were bold. The ingredients looked vaguely familiar from things I’d read in breastfeeding groups.

What I didn’t know was how to tell the difference between a product formulated by someone with clinical knowledge of galactagogues — the substances believed to support milk production — and a product assembled by a food manufacturer who had noted that lactation cookies sell well and included the ingredients that appear most frequently on breastfeeding Facebook groups.

Fourteen years of working with breastfeeding families and qualifying as a Certified Postpartum Nutrition Professional have given me a very clear picture of what that difference looks like. This post exists because nobody handed me a framework when I needed one, and I want you to have it before you spend money on something that may not be doing what you think it is.

What Galactagogues Actually Are

A galactagogue is any substance — food, herb, or pharmaceutical — that is believed to support or increase breast milk production. The word comes from the Greek “galacta” meaning milk. Galactagogues have been used in virtually every culture throughout recorded history, appearing in traditional medicine from Ayurvedic practice, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Mediterranean herbal traditions, and Indigenous healing systems across the world.

They fall into three broad categories:

• Food-based galactagogues: oats, barley, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, moringa leaves, blessed thistle, brewer’s yeast, flaxseed, chickpeas, dark leafy greens

• Herbal galactagogue supplements: concentrated extracts of the above in capsule, tincture, or tea form — fenugreek capsules, moringa powder, fennel tea, etc.

• Pharmaceutical galactagogues: domperidone and metoclopramide, prescription medications sometimes used off-label to support milk supply under medical supervision

The lactation product market in Australia — cookies, teas, hot chocolates, capsule blends, nursing balls — sits almost entirely in the first two categories. These are the products a mother encounters when she searches for help with milk supply at 2am.

And the evidence behind them varies enormously. Not all galactagogues are equal. Not all lactation products are clinically considered. And almost no packaging tells you which is which.

What the Evidence Actually Says

The honest starting point is this: no herbal galactagogue supplement has strong, consistently replicated randomised controlled trial evidence proving it increases milk supply in all or most breastfeeding mothers. This is the position of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, which does not endorse any specific galactagogue due to insufficient evidence of safety and efficacy.

That is the floor. But it is not the whole story.

Some galactagogues have meaningful evidence behind them. Some have plausible biological mechanisms even where direct RCT evidence is limited. Some are nutritionally valuable regardless of their galactagogue effect. And some are in products primarily because they test well in consumer focus groups, not because a CPPNP or IBCLC sat down with the clinical literature and formulated around it.

For a full breakdown of the evidence behind specific galactagogues, the Nella Vosk deep-dive — Do Galactagogues Work? Evidence-Based Guide — covers fenugreek, moringa, oats, brewer’s yeast, fennel, and others in detail. What this post covers is something different: how to read a lactation supplement label, and what to look for and avoid when choosing between products.

The Brewer’s Yeast Problem Nobody Warns You About

Brewer’s yeast appears in the majority of lactation cookie products on the Australian market. It is frequently listed as a primary galactagogue ingredient. And this is where I want to slow down and give you information that almost no product label provides.

Brewer’s yeast is a source of B vitamins, chromium, selenium, and protein — nutritionally useful, certainly. As a galactagogue with a direct mechanism for increasing milk supply, its evidence is modest. As an ingredient that causes problems for a meaningful proportion of mothers and babies, its reputation is considerably better established.

For mothers

Brewer’s yeast is a fermented yeast product. In mothers who have recently taken antibiotics, are experiencing thrush, or are prone to yeast overgrowth, it can exacerbate these issues. This is not a rare reaction — it is common enough that the brewer’s yeast-free lactation product category exists specifically to serve the mothers for whom standard formulations cause problems.

For babies

Compounds from brewer’s yeast pass through breast milk. In babies who are sensitive, this can present as increased gas, fussiness, digestive discomfort, or a general unsettledness that is often attributed to other causes because nobody told the mother to check the ingredient list of what she ate that day.

The reason this matters is commercial: brewer’s yeast is cheap, produces a distinctive flavour that lactation cookies are associated with, and has been in lactation cookie recipes for long enough that its inclusion has become conventional rather than evidence-driven. Many products that contain it do so not because a clinical formulator assessed its risk-benefit profile for each mother, but because it is what lactation cookies have always contained.

If you are in the early postpartum weeks, have recently taken antibiotics, have a personal or family history of yeast sensitivity, or have a baby who becomes unsettled after you eat brewer’s yeast-containing products, a brewer’s yeast-free formulation is worth seeking out. The galactagogue support from a well-formulated brewer’s yeast-free product — using oats, fennel, moringa, and flaxseed — is not diminished by the absence of brewer’s yeast. For more on this, the guide to brewer’s yeast-free lactation products covers the clinical picture in full.

How to Read a Lactation Supplement Label

Here is the framework I apply when evaluating any lactation supplement — whether cookie, tea, capsule, or blend.

1. What is the primary galactagogue ingredient, and what is the evidence for it?

The first and highest-volume ingredient after any base (oats, flour, etc.) is doing the most galactagogue work. Check what it is:

• Moringa: currently the best-evidenced herbal galactagogue for directly supporting milk volume. If it is the lead galactagogue in a supplement, that is a positive signal.

• Fenugreek: well-studied, with modest positive evidence for short-term use in healthy mothers. Worth considering for most mothers, with some contraindications (thyroid conditions, blood sugar concerns, pregnancy). Causes a maple syrup scent in sweat and urine — harmless but worth knowing.

• Oats: nutritionally valuable, with a plausible mechanism via beta-glucan and prolactin support. Evidence for direct supply increase is limited but nutritional value is real and meaningful for a breastfeeding mother’s energy and iron intake.

• Fennel: traditionally used across cultures, some small clinical evidence, generally well-tolerated, often a useful supporting ingredient.

• Blessed thistle: traditional use, limited clinical evidence, typically used in combination with fenugreek.

• Brewer’s yeast: nutritionally useful, modest galactagogue evidence, significant tolerance issues for some mothers and babies (see above).

• Flaxseed: provides omega-3s and fibre, nutritionally valuable for a breastfeeding mother, weaker direct galactagogue evidence.

2. Is the product formulated to a therapeutic ingredient level, or token-dosed?

The presence of an ingredient on a label does not guarantee a functional dose. A product can list fenugreek, moringa, and fennel and contain each at a level too low to have any meaningful galactagogue effect — sufficient for label marketing, insufficient for clinical purpose.

This is particularly relevant for capsule-form galactagogue supplements, where standardised dosing matters. For food-form products like cookies and teas, the galactagogue ingredients are more likely to be at functional food concentrations — but the overall nutritional context (caloric adequacy, B vitamins, healthy fats) matters as much as the galactagogue ingredient specifically.

3. Are there supply-suppressing ingredients?

Some commonly used herbs are associated with reduced milk supply at higher concentrations and should not be in a lactation product. These include peppermint, sage, parsley, and spearmint. If any of these appear in a product marketed for lactation support, that is a red flag worth investigating.

• Peppermint tea and peppermint oil are associated with reduced supply — fine in small amounts as a flavouring in food, but should not be a featured ingredient in a lactation tea or supplement

• Sage: traditionally used to dry up milk during weaning — has no business in a product designed to increase supply

• Spearmint: similar mechanism to peppermint, similarly inappropriate in a lactation product

4. Who formulated this product, and what are their credentials?

This question is almost never asked and almost never answered on product packaging. But it matters more than any individual ingredient.

A lactation product formulated by a Certified Postpartum Nutrition Professional, an IBCLC, or a clinician with specific lactation and perinatal nutrition expertise is a fundamentally different product to one assembled by a food manufacturer who identified a commercial category and added the conventional ingredients. The former reflects clinical knowledge of galactagogue mechanisms, safety profiles, contraindications, and therapeutic dosing. The latter reflects market research.

When a brand lists the formulator’s credentials on their product page or website, that transparency is a positive signal. When the brand cannot tell you who formulated their product or what clinical expertise informed the formulation, that absence is information too.

5. Does the product address the conditions that actually underlie low supply?

The most common cause of perceived low milk supply is inadequate milk removal — infrequent feeding, ineffective latch, insufficient pumping. No galactagogue supplement addresses this. A product that sells itself as a solution to low supply without any reference to the supply-and-demand mechanism of milk production is missing the most important clinical context.

A well-formulated lactation product is positioned as a support tool for a mother who is already feeding or pumping effectively, not as a standalone solution to supply problems. If packaging promises to "boost supply" with no qualification, that is a commercial claim, not a clinical one.

The Non-Negotiable Foundation

Galactagogue supplements for breastfeeding work best — and in many cases only work — in the context of frequent, effective milk removal. This is the supply-and-demand mechanism that underlies all milk production: the more milk is removed from the breast, the more your body produces. Feeding frequency, latch quality, and thorough breast emptying are the primary drivers of supply. Galactagogues support them; they do not replace them.

If you are experiencing a genuine supply issue, the most important first step is a lactation assessment — with an IBCLC, a maternal and child health nurse, or a GP with breastfeeding expertise — to identify whether the issue is mechanical (latch, positioning, feeding frequency) before reaching for a supplement. Galactagogue supplements used on top of an unaddressed latch issue will not resolve the underlying problem, and may delay getting the help that would actually change the supply picture.

For a complete guide to supply-building strategies that address the whole picture, the article on 10 proven ways to increase your milk supply is a useful companion to this one.

Keep Reading

These posts go deeper into the galactagogue and lactation support picture:

Do Galactagogues Work? Evidence-Based Guide

Brewer’s Yeast for Breastfeeding: What the Evidence Says

Brewer’s Yeast Free Lactation Cookies: Who Needs Them

Breastfeeding Cookies: Do Lactation Cookies Work?

Foods to Increase Milk Supply Naturally: What the Evidence Says

10 Proven Ways to Increase Your Milk Supply

Best Postpartum Snacks for Energy and Milk Supply

The Nella Vosk lactation range was formulated by a Certified Postpartum Nutrition Professional with 14 years of clinical experience working with breastfeeding families — not by a food manufacturer who noted that lactation products sell well. Every product in the range is built around the actual evidence, including a brewer’s yeast-free option for mothers who need it. Explore the Nella Vosk lactation range.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelly Northey is a Certified Postpartum Nutrition Professional (CPPNP) and founder of Nella Vosk, an Australian maternal and family wellness brand. She has spent 14 years working with breastfeeding families and formulating lactation products around the clinical evidence, not the market.
Learn more about Kelly.