"If oats otherwise do no harm, they might be worth trying. In the back of my
mind, isn't there a traditional link between oats and breastfeeding? Did
someone notice that the mother made more milk, but was it because the oats
treated her subclinical mastitis?"

Susun Weed, at a recent talk of herbs and breastfeeding, recommended oatstraw
(oatmeal) as a nourishing herb for breastfeeding.  My notes state she said it
has a hormone level effect; in her book "The Childbearing Year" she does not
list it as a galctagogue but states during pregnancy it is recommended for
varicosities and is "useful to strenghten the capillaries."  Recommends
drinking as infusion (1-2 cups per day for varicose veins).  Perhaps getting
more blood circulating in breast would help by removing toxins as well as
milk production.

Barbara Latterner, BSN, RN, IBCLC
Brewster, NY
"What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give."- P.D. James
(recently came across his quote and find it apropos to recent LN discussions,
and it says it all!)

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