I think that the question by this mother who is wondering if a low-carb, low-processed food diet could reduce her milk supply demonstrates how prevalent the misconception is regarding how our bodies produce milk. In my opinion, this may be the most common myth among healthcare workers about breastfeeding. The idea that eating certain foods or even drinking water directly influences milk production. I really don't think it does at all unless you are at the point of starvation and have no fat stores. Even if you went 2 days without drinking any water, your body would pull fluids from your interstitial tissues and burn fat stores (that most of us have). There have been women lost on the ocean for days with no water and they continue to produce milk for their babies, though they are incredibly dehydrated. I think we really need to start drilling this home with moms and healthcare workers - what makes milk is removing milk from your breasts. I'm so tired of women feeling their milk is low (which is usually isn't) and hearing some well-meaning but misinformed nurse tell her to "drink water to bring her milk in." Far too often I see patients drinking glass after glass of water in the hospital and then put a pacifier in the babies mouth and not understand how to make milk. I feel many HCP's contribute to this misconception unfortunately. We need to really make a concentrated effort to educate people about this. There is far too much concern from moms about what to eat when breastfeeding "to make milk" and not enough emphasis on putting the baby to breast. Anyway, if this diet was a problem for humans we wouldn't have survived throughout history in hunter-gatherer societies because that is the diet that they all mainly ate before cultures began to farm and grow grains. When moms ask me about this, I just try to be really clear and tell them that they do not make milk by drinking water or eating special foods - it's my taking milk out of their breasts either by breastfeeding, hand expressing or pumping. That's it. If you don't feed the baby, you can drink a gallon of water and it's not going to do anything. Am I oversimplifying here? It seems like a pretty simple process to me. I tell them to drink water when they are thirsty, but it doesn't directly produce more milk. 
Tricia Shamblin, RN, IBCLC

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