Expensive lactation cookies ineffective

Key takeaways:

• Although lactation cookies are marketed as milk-boosters, a recent study found no evidence suggesting they increased milk production.
• Researchers said the cookies may only offer false hope.

Lactation-boosting cookies appeared to be ineffective after a month-long randomized clinical trial and may only offer “false hope and unnecessary financial costs” to vulnerable patients, according to researchers.

Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Ana M. Palacios, MD, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of health policy and community health at Georgia Southern University, and colleagues noted that lactation cookies are named so because they contain “galactagogues” — which are “substances believed to enhance the production of human milk” such as oatmeal, Brewer’s yeast and flaxseed meal.

Although lactation cookies are marketed as milk-boosters, the researchers noted that “the available evidence is, at best, inconclusive,” and their effectiveness remains unknown.

“Lactation products are a growing industry targeting parents of infants and are popular, recognized and widely consumed. Myriads of blogs, product consumer reviews, social media channels and even breast pump companies are promoting the use of lactation cookies claiming to ‘support’ and ‘boost’ human milk supply,” they wrote. “These cookies are often expensive and may impose undue economic burden on parents at a vulnerable time.”

Palacios and colleagues conducted a randomized control trial to better understand how effective the daily intake of lactation cookies is on changes in milk production and breastfeeding self-efficacy.

The monthlong randomized control trial included 176 exclusively lactating parents aged of 18 and 45 years in the United States who had healthy 2-month-old infants. The participants were randomly assigned to eat either 56.5 g of lactation cookies or conventional cookies that lacked galactagogues but contained similar weight, calories and presentation.

Palacios and colleagues did not find any evidence that eating lactation cookies has an effect on perceived insufficient milk, breastfeeding self-efficacy or milk production rates, which were measured with a validated milk expression protocol.

After 1 month of daily cookie intake, the researchers wrote that imputed models indicated a mean increase in milk production rates of 5.5 mL/h for those who ate the lactation cookies and 5.8 mL/h for control participants. Additionally, there were no statistically significant changes between the groups when it came to milk production rates, perceived insufficient milk or breastfeeding self-efficacy from baseline to post-intervention.

The mean difference-in-differences were:

• -0.33 (P = 0.948) for human milk production rate;
• -0.52 (P = 0.775) in perceived insufficient milk; and
• 0.31 (P = 0.888) in lactation self-efficacy scores.

Palacios and colleagues noted that they used one specific lactation cookie brand, and therefore cannot conclude that no other cookies might have an impact.

“The study shifts the burden of proof to those who want to claim that lactation cookies in general are or might be effective for all,” they wrote. “Further studies evaluating the effectiveness of other lactation cookies, and in participants with low perceived milk supply, are warranted.”