Lactation Cookies: hmmm?

WARNING: If you're reading this for research purposes....they might actually work...they do taste great....I'd recommend them because, even if they don't work, it's a good excuse to eat a cookie. (or several...which I'll get to!)

I've read all over the breastfeeding message board about how great these cookies are...for taste and milk-producing purposes. So, finally, I decided to make them. It was somewhat of a disaster. (Dad - before you panic, you will not produce breastmilk because you ate the cookies. They, pretty much, are just oatmeal cookies!!) So that's it - simple oatmeal cookies with three key ingredients: oatmeal, flax seed meal, and brewer's yeast powder. SO, what was the issue with the cookies? The issue that I found most people having was getting two of the key ingredients...



I had no problem with this. We already have flax seed in the house, and The Vitamin Shoppe has Brewer's Yeast. Easy. Making the batter: easy...did it during naptime. Actually baking the cookies - impossible. Following the "4 per day" prescription - really impossible. There you have it - the reasons this project was a disaster.

Baking the cookies: to all other mothers out there...HOW in the world do you manage to bake more than one dozen of cookies? The process of plopping the little spoonfuls, waiting the 7 minutes for them to bake, letting them cool, starting all over again...IMPOSSIBLE with one wild little toddler who moves at 100 miles per hour and 1 two month old who wants to eat at the exact moment the over timer is going off and her sister needs to go on the potty. So I, somehow, managed to bake 3 dozen. I put the rest of the batter in the fridge so that I could "bake them when the kids are occupied and I have time to actually focus." So, when the time came, I took the batter out and sat it on the oven for "a few minutes" because it was rock hard. (The quotes are to indicate the great idea I had that did not go over so well...) So, as always in our house, 293,091 things started happening at one time. I forgot about the cookie dough for about 45 minutes...SHOCKER! I finally went to start baking, and it was extremely melty and funny looking. The result: no longer are they "oatmeal chocolate chip" cookies. They are... "oatmeal cookies that the chips melted in before they were supposed to, so now they are verrry sad excuses for chocolate cookies." Oh well...kinda made a valiant effort!

Now, as for the recommended "4 per day" prescription for increasing milk supply.......I WISH! I gaind.. shhhhhh 40 pounds ..while I was pregnant. By some mysterious and AMAZING magic, I lost 30 of those pounds within 3 weeks after giving birth. GUESS WHAT?!?! I just gained back 3 of those pounds. (You definitely thought I was going to say I lost even more, didn't you! Tricked ya!!!) Of course you were going to think that. It is the logical progression of events that occur after having a baby. GAINING, typically, is not included in that. UNLESS you have the uncontrollable urge to eat cookies. every time you walk through the kitchen.

So, in summary, I definitely recommend baking the cookies if you are a lactating mother....just actually bake them instead of destroying the batter. And maybe put them in pretty little baggies for 4 OR simply be a normal grown-up who can display a small amount of self-control!!!!