Staying well-hydrated is the single most important drink-related factor in maintaining your milk supply, but several specific beverages may offer an extra boost. Breastfeeding mothers need about 16 cups of fluid per day from food, beverages, and drinking water combined, since a significant portion of that fluid goes directly into making milk. Beyond plain water, certain drinks contain compounds that may stimulate the hormone prolactin, which drives milk production.
Water and Electrolyte Drinks
Before reaching for any specialty beverage, the foundation is simply drinking enough fluids. Mild dehydration won’t immediately tank your supply, but chronic under-hydration can gradually reduce milk volume. A practical approach: keep a water bottle nearby during every feeding session and drink to thirst throughout the day. If your urine is pale yellow, you’re likely getting enough.
Electrolyte drinks like Body Armour, coconut water, and similar sports beverages have become popular among breastfeeding mothers. These typically contain coconut water, potassium, magnesium, sodium, and B vitamins. No clinical studies have directly shown they increase milk supply, and the benefit likely comes from the hydration itself rather than any milk-boosting ingredient. That said, if a flavored electrolyte drink motivates you to hit your daily fluid target when plain water doesn’t, it’s doing its job. Watch for added sugars, though. Many sports drinks pack more sugar per bottle than you’d expect.
Oat Milk and Barley-Based Drinks
Oats and barley both contain a type of soluble fiber called beta-glucan, which has been shown in lab studies to stimulate prolactin release. Prolactin is the primary hormone responsible for telling your body to produce milk. This mechanism has been demonstrated in animal studies and in isolated tissue experiments, where beta-glucan directly triggered prolactin secretion from pituitary cells.
Oat milk, oat-based smoothies, and even a warm bowl of oatmeal blended into a drink are common choices. Barley water, made by simmering barley in water and straining it, is a traditional galactagogue in many cultures. The beta-glucan connection gives these folk remedies a plausible biological basis, though large-scale human trials specifically measuring milk output from drinking oat milk are still lacking. Many lactation consultants recommend oat-based drinks as a low-risk option worth trying.
Non-Alcoholic Beer
This one surprises most people. The polysaccharide from barley in beer, not the alcohol, appears to be what stimulates prolactin. Non-alcoholic beer delivers that same barley-derived compound without the downsides of ethanol. Alcohol itself actually works against milk supply by interfering with oxytocin, the hormone responsible for the let-down reflex that moves milk out of the breast. So regular beer is counterproductive: it may bump prolactin slightly while simultaneously making it harder for milk to flow. Non-alcoholic beer sidesteps this problem entirely.
Fenugreek Tea
Fenugreek is one of the most widely recommended herbal galactagogues, and it shows up in many “lactation tea” blends. The evidence is mixed. One study found that women drinking fenugreek tea produced more milk on day three postpartum (275 mL versus 246 mL in the control group), but other studies using fenugreek capsules found no significant difference from the comparison group. In one trial, milk volume in the fenugreek group actually decreased over time, though the change wasn’t statistically significant.
A combination supplement containing fenugreek along with turmeric and ginger showed more promising results: milk volumes increased by 49% at two weeks and 103% at four weeks. But since those capsules contained multiple ingredients, it’s hard to credit fenugreek alone.
Fenugreek does come with cautions. Large doses can cause a harmful drop in blood sugar, which matters if you have diabetes or hypoglycemia. It can also cause digestive upset, and your sweat and urine may smell like maple syrup (harmless but startling). If you try fenugreek tea, one to three cups per day is the typical amount mothers use.
Fennel Tea
Fennel seeds contain a compound called anethole, a plant-based estrogen that passes into breast milk. The FDA classifies fennel oil as generally recognized as safe for use in food, and fennel has been used safely in infants to treat colic, suggesting the smaller amounts transferred through breast milk are unlikely to cause harm at normal doses.
There is a safety ceiling, however. Excessive use of herbal teas combining fennel and anise appeared to cause toxicity in two breastfed newborns, consistent with anethole overexposure. Some sources recommend limiting fennel tea to two weeks at a time. One or two cups a day is a reasonable amount. If you’re also drinking an herbal blend that contains anise (which has the same active compound), be mindful of the overlap.
What Doesn’t Help: Alcohol
The old advice to “have a beer to boost your milk” gets the science backwards. While barley polysaccharides in beer may nudge prolactin upward, alcohol itself suppresses oxytocin and impairs the let-down reflex. Studies in both humans and animals confirm that maternal alcohol consumption interferes with the hormones controlling lactation. The net effect of a regular beer is typically less milk transferred to the baby, not more. If you’re drawn to the barley benefit, non-alcoholic beer is the better choice.
Putting It All Together
No single drink is a magic fix for low supply. The most reliable strategies for increasing milk production are frequent nursing or pumping, effective latch, and adequate overall hydration. Drinks work best as a complement to those fundamentals, not a replacement.
A reasonable daily approach might look like this: hit your 16-cup fluid goal with water as the base, add a glass of oat milk or barley water, and rotate in a cup or two of fenugreek or fennel tea if you want to try herbal options. Pay attention to how your body responds over several days rather than expecting overnight results. If you’re drinking enough and nursing frequently but still seeing low output, the issue may be something a lactation consultant can help identify, like latch problems or an underlying hormonal factor, rather than something a beverage can solve.