The Health Benefits Of Oats For Breastfeeding Mums

While every breastfeeding mum wants to produce enough milk to keep up with their baby, for a multitude of reasons milk supply sometimes drop and you might notice because your baby’s feeding for less time, they’re not putting on weight, softening breasts or that your baby is feeding more often. It’s also common for babies to be quite unsettled if milk supply is low.

If you have seen these signs, it’s worth trying to increase your breast milk. And one of the best products that you can use is oats, which have been used for decades because they're reputed to help increase milk production.

Why Oats Increases Breast Milk

There are many reasons why oats may increase breast milk. These reasons include:

Iron: oatmeal contains high levels of iron. It’s a known fact that maternal anemia results to low milk production; therefore, when you increase iron intake you may greatly increase milk production.

Calming: oatmeal is a comfort food; therefore, when you take it, oxytocin and relaxin hormones can be released. These two hormones stimulate breast milk production.

Cholesterol: oatmeal contains beta-glutein which may assist in lowering cholesterol levels. Low cholesterol level in the body may be linked to increased milk production.

How To Add Oats Into Your Diet Easily

Try having a bowl of warm oats made into porridge for breakfast (every day). You can also add them into baked goods wherever possible like cookies, which is why they are one of the main ingredients in our Breastfeeding Cookies.

The great thing about oats is that there are no side effects (if you have no allergies or intolerances), so it's worth a try at adding them wherever you can. That being said though, you should be cautious if you are gluten intolerant as oats are not gluten free. You should also be cautious if you have celiac disease as the gluten from oats will affect this too and for some people who suffer these conditions oats can bring about diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems.
To avoid any problems always ensure that you talk to your doctor if you are at all concerned.

Other Benefits of Oats

In addition to their reputed benefits in increasing milk supply, oats have many other potential benefits to mothers:

Reduces hair loss: due to the high protein content, oatmeal may thicken hair; therefore, if you are worried of your hair thinning due to breastfeeding, oatmeal could be of great help to you.

Immune system: it’s important for you to have a strong immune system in order to protect yourself from diseases. Beta-gluten in oats may aid in boosting the immune system. It's also reputed to help the non-specific immune cells (neutrophils) in fighting bacterial infections.

Diabetes: the high amounts of magnesium in oatmeal can potentially assist the body to make good use of glucose. Magnesium may also helps the body to secrete insulin thus potentially also reducing your risk of suffering from diabetes.