Lisa,
Sheila Humphrey's book The Nursing Mother's Herbal is an excellent resource-- on page 284 she rates the leaf as "A" and the rhizome (root) and "B", both positive ratings (a rating system similar to Tom Hale's).  A while back I wrote to some of the top herb experts and asked them to start listing and rating our galactogogues herbs for breastfeeding. The response I received was "talk to Sheila Humphrey-- she's the expert on this." Sheila has written the pregnancy/breastfeeding sections for several books and should be considered a go-to resource.

In addition to Sheila's rating, "Herbal Medicines in Pregnancy & lactation: An evidence-based approach" says that in "food amounts," dandelion "is of minimal risk during pregnancy (evidence level 4 of their system) and under lactation it says "unknown: There are no reports in the scientific literature of dandelion being either safe or contraindicated during lactation- Ev level 5.  The only cautions are for bile duct and intestinal obstruction, or kidney disease. 

A word on "medical sites...."  Most refer to sources that are not experts in botanicals. It's like looking up drugs for breastfeeding in the PDR-- lactation professionals understand that the PDR frequently cautions or contraindicates drugs that are actually safe for breastfeeding. Instead, we check Hale or Nice because they actually know something about the drugs and lactation vs parroting cautious language. To get the scoop on an herb for breastfeeding, look to Humphrey, Nice, LowDog, Mills....  and I also summarized safety info in the appendix table in the MMM book-- dandelion is listed there also.

Lisa Marasco, MA, IBCLC, FILCA

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