more ways to increase milk supply: mochi & tapioca

So this happened in the last month or so.  I learned about two foods that significantly increased my breast milk supply and totally by accident.  Mommas, if you’re trying to establish your supply or have experienced a dip…you’ll especially want to keep reading.

milk

Here’s the first and how it went down.

So my husband and I finally got a night out on Valentine’s Day.  We’re normally not big into celebrating this holiday…but it fell on a Friday this year and we needed to get out badly.  Just some time for the two of us to sit without interruption and eat.  That’s all we wanted to do really.  Truthfully, I’m not sure if we even chatted up too much.  It was nice to eat together and not have to glance over a monitor, go soothe a fussy baby or toddler in the middle of a bite. So after dinner, we decided to spend the last bit of our date walking around.  We hadn’t explored that shopping center much and we stumbled into a cafe called Mochilato.  They serve a whole bunch of desserts from macaroons to shaved ice but what they are known for is their mochi stuffed with gelato.  I had never really eaten or really experienced much mochi until we moved to California.  Mochi is basically soft and chewy rice dough made from heavily pounded cooked sweet brown rice.  It’s often stuffed with ice cream but this place does it with gelato.  I had a chocolate hazelnut (think nutella) one and thought it was pretty good.  I’m not the biggest fan of mochi but with the gelato, it was hitting that sweet spot that I craved after our Mexican meal.

That night my pumps were insane.  Usually I pump a good 6 – 7 ounces every pump.  The four pumps after I got back home were 10 and up.  It was nuts.  And at first I thought was it all that  cheese in my enchiladas?  But then I googled mochi and there it was…the first thing that came up was  “mochi for milk”.  To try this out for yourself, visit your local health food store like Whole Foods for mochi squares.  You can get mochi filled with ice cream at Trader Joes or maybe even your grocery store in the ice cream or Asian foods section.

So now onto my second revelation.  Tapioca.

A few weeks ago, my mother in law sent over some “sabudana khichadi”.  If you’re from Gujarat in India – you definitely know what I’m talking about.  But for everyone else, let me explain.  Sabudana is the Gujarati term for pearl tapioca – the same tapioca that you find in many bubble/boba teas (by the way, I’m totally not advocating drinking those teas since most are packed full of sugar and even caffeine).  Sabudana khichadi is essentially a dish made from soaked pearl tapioca which is then lightly pan-fried with potatoes, cumin, chile and ground peanuts.  I love this stuff.  So when she sent it, I knew I was having it for dinner.  And again, that night’s pumps were so much more than my normal.  I googled again and eating tapioca to increase milk supply was all over the place.  Again, not sure exactly why…but thinking it has to do with the high starch content.  You can find sabudana in Indian grocery stores.

And here’s my mother in law’s recipe.

sabudana khichadi
Recipe Type: rice
Cuisine: indian
Author: shraddha
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2
a light savory dish of tapioca pearls and potatoes seasoned with cumin, mustard, green chiles, ground peanuts and lemon
Ingredients
  • 1 cup tapioca pearls (sago)
  • 1 medium potato
  • 1 sliced green chile (add more if you desire)
  • 1/2 lemon juiced
  • 3 tablespoons lightly ground peanuts
  • 1 teaspoon whole cumin (jeera)
  • 3/4 teaspoon whole mustard seeds
  • salt
  • 1 table spoon olive oil
Instructions
  1. RInse tapioca well with cold water
  2. Soak overnight in bowl of water kept in refrigerator
  3. The next morning, the tapioca should be soft, airy and will have soaked all the water
  4. Warm pan over medium high heat, add oil
  5. Add cumin and mustard seeds – once seeds are popping then add green chile
  6. Add potato and salt – cook until tender (about ten minutes)
  7. Add tapioca and peanuts and mix well – let it come together for few minutes
  8. Add lemon and mix well

As with everything, I think moderation is key and I’m in no way saying you should eat a mochi ice cream/gelato treat every night.  But I’m so happy there are other effective options out there for  mommas to try out rather than just oatmealspecial teas and fenugreek to increase milk production.  If you end up trying either of these out to help your supply, I’d love to hear how they worked for you.

Now, go make that milk mommas!

Shraddha

 

5 Comments

  • Laks

    Tapioca really increased my milk supply thank u btw any other means to increase milk production as of my 3 week old daughter will be well satisfied?

    • Shraddha

      try my post on 6 ways to increase milk supply…water, oatmeal, rest, low stress and fenugreek!! good luck.

  • Jennifer

    I love tapioca pudding, would that help with milk supply too… I am attempting to rebuild my milk supply for my 4 month old, he started refusing nursing like 2 months ago or so… although occasionally he will latch for short spurts, but even if I have to pump exclusively I really would like to find out if the pudding would be beneficial. I have not totally dried up surprisingly. Been trying to keep the production going since he started refusing.

    I also have no idea what Mochi is however I sure would try it if it would help benefit my supply.

    • Shraddha

      Hi Jennifer – it does not hurt to try either of these out if you’re feeling brave to try new things! I think as mommas we tend to do anything it takes a lot of the time. 🙂 I found both of these to help to boost the supply but the best thing by far was drinking a lot of water, reducing stress and pumping regularly. I exclusively pumped for one of my boys and staying on a schedule despite being at work, social commitments and and sleep!! Good luck to you and congrats on your baby!!

  • Jessica Marques

    I was dried up because was hospitalized for a whole week and when came back home started drinking Healthy nursing tea and re-established my supply.

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