TikTok and social media in general has become THE place for trends and finding how to "easy" solutions to almost anything. The bad part of this is those quick fixes are simply a "band aid" solution to cover it up but it doesn't get to root of the real issue causing the problem. This means it will come back and keep coming back until "the why" is discovered and then resolved.
So I've been seeing this craze of eating coconut oil to increase milk supply all over TikTok. One woman (all tea no shade--who is not a lactation professional) is using her own anecdotal "evidence" of eating heaping spoonfuls of coconut oil everyday to say this is why she has so much milk. She is telling moms that if they just do what she does they will have a gallon of breast milk in the fridge every day like she does. Umm okay...but where's the science, evidence, facts of how this works??? There isn't.
Now y'all probably think I'm a hater because you might have wanted that to work or even tried it yourself, but I'm just keepin it 💯 with y'all so you aren't out here buying stuff you don't need to buy! Save them dollar$ for something that actually has been proven to help.
While I'm happy she is promoting breastfeeding and trying to empower moms, the major problem here is the false hope. What works for one doesn't work for all. People try these gimmicks and either have the placebo effect if they think it worked, they probably were doing something else right not this. Then a lot of people are let down and think something is wrong with them when it doesn't work the same way.
What you don't see is that she might not be eating this at all, and could just be pumping and feeding a lot. She could be an overproducer from too much pumping or even a medical condition like a Prolactinoma. I've worked with 2 people with Prolactinomas and they will tell you having a lot of milk is not always fun at all!
Either way, having too much milk is not always a good thing. There's lack of storage space in the fridge and freezer, because it's more than your baby can actually even drink. Plugged ducts, engorgement, mastitis if the milk sits too long in the breast, and aching breasts from being too full. All no bueno.
Most parents are concerned about milk supply, this is common, especially when you are exclusively breastfeeding. So it can be hard to trust that your baby is getting enough when you can't see how much is going in like the bottle. It sucks that our boobs don't have those ounces indicators on them right! We have to learn to trust our bodies.
So you are trying to make more milk out of concern, but we really need to find out first should we even be concerned? Find an IBCLC lactation consultant to get a weighted feed to see how much milk your baby is transferring at breast for peace of mind.
But until then, you still wanna know can coconut oil really increase your milk supply?
The short answer to this question is NO.
There are NO scientific studies demonstrating that coconut oil increases milk supply. There is some evidence that ingesting coconut products increases the antimicrobial properties of breast milk.
I'm all about evidence based research when it comes to providing solutions for lactation challenges.
If you or baby are not allergic to nuts or coconut, it's generally considered safe to eat it while breastfeeding, like most things are, but it won't yield more milk. There is nothing lactogenic about it, meaning there are no properties in it that promote milk production. There are galactagogues; herbs, substances, medications and foods that can help, but this ain't that.