Fenugreek

This is what helped me to get my milk supply up again after having been hospitalized for almost a week and not being able to breastfeed Zoë.

I've tried papaya soup, fish soup, Mother's Milk tea, but as a galactagogue, nothing worked as well as fenugreek, for me anyway. I decided to give fenugreek a try upon recommendations from friends and also after reading about it at kellymom.com (a wonderful resource on breastfeeding!).

I tried several health stores before finding fenugreek capsules at CitySuper in Times Square (the little pharmacy next to the supermarket section, actually). At the time, I got it for HK$168 for a bottle of 90 capsules (500mg).

All I needed was a bottle (actually, less even!) and there was marked increase in my milk supply. I took a total of 9 caps per day --3 at each meal. I'd read that there are possible effects which include sweat and urine, breast milk and breastfed baby possibly smelling like maple syrup, but luckily I didn't experience any nasty side effect.

For more information about fenugreek as a galactagogue, please click here.