# How long do you take Fenugreek, etc?



## Periwinkle (Feb 27, 2003)

I gave birth to a big baby boy (10-9) and while my milk came in quickly, it took a little while to get it up to his needs. Anyway, long story short... after agressively pumping and taking Fenugreek and eating oatmeal, my supply is okay now. At least he's gaining 1 to 1.5 oz. a day, is content, and pooping like a champ.









I take 3 Fenugreek 3x/day. Are there any risks in continuing to take it? It feels kind of like a security blanket... I'm a little scared to discontinue it since it worked so great to increase my supply. If I do/can stop taking it, how... cold turkey? Wean slowly?

Once your baby is a couple of months old, do the herbs work to increase supply or do they only work during the early stages? In other words, if he goes through a growth spurt and needs more milk, in addition to more stimulation/nursing obviously, could the herbs work again for me?

Are there any herbs I'm missing for future use?







I'm comfortable taking Fenugreek b/c it's just a food, basically... a spice. Blessed Thistle I've heard good things about but don't know about it's safety or efficacy. Any others?


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## Debstmomy (Jun 1, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Periwinkle*
I take 3 Fenugreek 3x/day. Are there any risks in continuing to take it? It feels kind of like a security blanket... I'm a little scared to discontinue it since it worked so great to increase my supply. If I do/can stop taking it, how... cold turkey? Wean slowly?

Once your baby is a couple of months old, do the herbs work to increase supply or do they only work during the early stages? In other words, if he goes through a growth spurt and needs more milk, in addition to more stimulation/nursing obviously, could the herbs work again for me?

Are there any herbs I'm missing for future use?







I'm comfortable taking Fenugreek b/c it's just a food, basically... a spice. Blessed Thistle I've heard good things about but don't know about it's safety or efficacy. Any others?

Fenugreek is pretty benign. Only risk is if you have diabetes or glucose issues. It just pass thru your urine, and make you smell like maple syrup. I have known many to use it long term.

If you want to come off, I would say do so slowly. Like for a couple days lower each dose until you are off. You could notice a dip in supply during that time, but if you nurse nurse nurse, you may make up for it on your own.

My LC HIGHLY reccomends More Milk Plus from Mother Love herbal. It is a tinture containing many galactogouge herbs.

Oh, I want to add, there is a book available on lactation & herbs. It is called, Nursing Mother's Herbal. I am eagarly awaiting my copy from Half.com.


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## Annemarie4 (Aug 23, 2002)

I would think you could stop taking it now-- that is excellent gain and it sound as though your son is nursing well. I would wean down, though, and do other supply building activities during that period. Drink tons, eat oatmeal and icecream (if your little one will allow, mine unfortunately will not!), and of course nurse, nurse nurse.


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## zinemama (Feb 2, 2002)

I had supply issues with my first and got off to a similar slow start with #2. Although nursing did not turn out to be a problem with #2, I was concerned about it. I took fenugreek for his whole first year. 9 capsules/day for about the first 6 months, then 6/day for the rest of the year. After that, I finished up the bottle and called it a day. During that first year, if I skipped the fenugreek for a couple of days, I could see a difference in supply. Even after I got confident that it was all going just fine, fenugreek was my security blanket, just as you say. I figure, if it's working for you, keep taking it, even if it's only having a placebo effect, so what? (And how can you be sure). I had no side effects from taking it all that time, I didn't get stinky the way some people say they do. It's great stuff!


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