More Milk Special Blend (60 Liquid caps)

I have been using this product for nearly 3 weeks now, and I can honestly say it has worked wonders for me. A little back story: despite my severely inverted nipples and a c-section, my son had a great latch and was nursing wonderfully, but at 48 hours he was moderately jaundiced (his bilirubin was about 6.8) and the doctor recommended I might want to try supplementing a bit with formula to get it down faster (more intake = more poop = less bilirubin). My firstborn was severely jaundiced and spent a week in hospital when she was born, and I was completely naive about breastfeeding so I gave up after the first few hours home when she would just root without latching and scream. In fear of the same thing happening again, when I was so determined to breastfeed this time, I agreed and went home with a small can of formula and instructions to nurse first then offer the bottle. My severely inverted nipples ended up with large terrible sores by day 3; not because of poor latch or anything else, but simply because they had never before been drawn out or exposed to outside air/fabric/a suckling babe, so they were extraordinarily sensitive and paid dearly for it. By day 4 the sores were so raw and bloody, I had to bite a towel every time he latched on and cried horribly the entire time. Lanolin, heating pads, and ice packs brought no relief. I made the mistake of going straight to bottle once, and then continued to let the fear of pain choose a bottle over nursing at every other feeding. Day 6 I ended up in the lactation consultant's office snot-crying that I didn't think I could do it, it just hurt so incredibly much. She suggested I try moist wound healing by expressing a few drops of breastmilk after each feeding and covering with saran wrap (which worked wonderfully to reduce the pain and speed healing). By the end of week 2 they were completely healed and I had toughened up enough that latching no longer hurt and I was back to nursing at every feeding, but all that supplementing and skipping breastfeeding meant my supply was nowhere near what my little one needed. He was still taking 1.5-2oz afterwards, and I was only able to pump MAYBE 1/2oz altogether. Let me add that by this point one breast is almost a cup size smaller (it was not this way until the sores came along and I nursed the less sore side more often) and produces about 1/6-1/4 of what the larger one does. Not only frustrating to deal with poor supply, but I was also feeling self conscious. Week 3: I researched and started taking fenugreek 2 capsules 4 times daily, and while I started to actually feel myself let down (which I hadn't felt since the first week), he was still taking at least 1.5oz of formula after every feeding. I went to see the lactation consultants and one suggested Motherlove Special Blend! She said she recently saw a big decrease after returning to work despite pumping, and had taken it for 1 month and was able to completely nurse her 4 month old again, as well as occasionally nurse her 2 year old! I decided to give it a try. I got it in the mail a day earlier than expected, and the next morning took the first dose eagerly. I will admit there is a bit of an aftertaste, but I stopped noticing it after the first day. By the morning of day 2 I was leaking a few drops out of the larger breast, and had a more noticeable letdown reflex. By the end of the first week taking it, I was able to pump 1 & 1/2oz altogether once a day and then anywhere between 1/2oz and 1oz throughout the rest; and my little one was only taking 1oz bottles after nursing. By the end of the second week on it, I was nursing him regularly but he was getting bottles once I was "empty" so my body had no reason to need to increase supply. I started taking away bottles during the day, switching him from side to side as long as he would allow me to before getting one. Within a few days I was down to 4 bottles a day, with the only formula being around 11pm, when he would not go down for the night on breastmilk alone. He was going through a growth spurt and I was soon returning to work, so I needed to increase my supply to pump at least enough for 1 bottle while I was away. I outlined a more strict pumping schedule, started cosleeping so that he could nurse as long as he wanted and for the increased skin to skin time, and had a power pumping weekend. As of now I am easily able to pump at least 3oz (sometimes 4oz) every 3 hours at work. I have enough for 3 bottles in the fridge at all times, and replace daily what was used. That's the only time I need to pump now, but I am able to go from about 9 pm to 4pm (or whenever I go to work) the following day without a bottle at all - he nurses 4-5 times at night on one side each, and only needs to be switched from the left to the right once per feeding during the day. No matter what at around 9pm every night he gets hysterical and will not latch, and spits out breastmilk in a bottle repeatedly, so he gets half a formula bottle and then nurses. The last 2 days I have bypassed that completely, and here's to hoping it's done for good! Let me say, my schedule for taking Special Blend is 8am, 12pm, 4pm, and 8pm - every 4 hours, and more or less half an hour before I usually nurse. I don't know if this is the magic number or not, but it has worked wonderfully for me. I also do only take it with one sip of water, and wait 20 minutes before and after taking it to drink. I set alarms on my phone for 20 before the hour to remind me to stop drinking and take it on the hour, and find I have no problem with timing. I have started taking 2 plain fenugreek at nighttime so there's not such a long stretch between my 8pm and 8am doses of Special Blend. It has helped lessen the amount of time he needs to nurse per feeding at night (was sometimes up to 45 minutes, now averages about 25 minutes). I have missed a dose twice and noticed a difference in output, although I'm not sure if there are other factors. Oh and my uneven breasts are now MUCH more even, the difference is really nominal and my other half days he doesn't see it at all anymore. That, by the way, is what separates Special Blend from More Milk Plus - the goats rue in Special Blend, for women that didn't see much change in breast tissue during pregnancy. I'm still getting less from that side, about 1 - 1 & 1/2oz (vs 2 - 2 & 1/2oz on the other side) but it's much better than the 1/8oz that I was getting! All in all, I believe that this product really works and do recommend it to other mother's struggling with supply. But I also recommend cosleeping, nursing constantly (you are not a pacifier, you are nourishment love and comfort for your baby, if he wants to comfort nurse let him! It's good for his well-being and great for your production!), spending as much time as possible skin to skin (even if he's not latched, just take him down to diaper and take your shirt off and snuggle), pumping about 10 minutes after each feeding for 5 minutes (it's not how much you get out or how long, but FREQUENCY that's key), and power pumping while baby's asleep for an extended period of time (10 minutes on, 10 minutes rest, lather rinse repeat for 2 hours). Oh, and one more thing that I just found out and made me feel a lot better - for a woman that is exclusively breastfeeding, only being able to pump 1-2oz is normal in between feedings, as that is what's *EXTRA* and women who can pump more are unusual! So rejoice, rest up, drink your fluids, get some Motherlove Special Blend, calm down and you'll get there! :D

I took these when I had my first baby and although I do remember them working, I only saw a slight increase inmmediately, but at least I was able to breastfeed my baby as long as I could. When I had my second baby, I thought I might not need these any more or maybe their effect was not as important as I remembered, but when I started to seriously dry out, I went back to these and my milk supply came back. I have to say that at first my baby was very colicky because since the let-down had increased a bit, she was initially frustrated because she was used to suck much harder and would choke a little bit, thus swallowing air in, but after a couple of weeks she got used to the new flow, nevertheless, since she is still 2 months old, she still struggles with gas which apparently these pills increased but it is quite manageable, she sleeps well at night and has very quiet naps during the day. I had seen other reviews where moms would stop using these because it increased gas on their babies but in my case, she managed the changes in the milk flow in a couple of weeks and she is back to the same state of gassiness she used to be, and everyone is happy. I would say that I would not be breastfeeding if I didn't take these and given that this is my second baby and I absolutely tried everything else I could, these capsules are the only thing that help my body respond to the stimulation of nursing. I'm unofficially diagnosed with PCOS as I do have one of my ovaries impaired with cysts. Like I said, these only help me increase about 1 oz or 2 but most importantly they triggered the response of producing more milk with more frequent nursin, which I was clearly lacking. So although I'm still supplementing with less than 3oz a day of expressed breast milk, at least my baby is 100% breast milk fed which was my target.

I had a terrible time nursing my first child. We ended up nursing only for 6 months with formula supplementation. My second is now 3 and hopefully will wean soon. I re-ordered this supplement three times early on before I tried Motherlove Goat's Rue, 120 Vegetarian Capsules (FFP) by itself. I eventually found that goats rue alone was enough to boost my supply. In my opinion this brand of supplements is one of the best ones I tried. This particular product is the one I suggest to moms I meet that have trouble with supply. The quality of the supplement, the quantity, dosage vs mom weight, what the issues are that make the mom need supplementation... All those will affect what you need and how much you need. This blend is a great solution very early on because your baby has to eat and honestly, there's no time to try this herb or that herb. This one should cover several and if this works for you, then just keep taking it until your supply is established. Here's a bit of my story: When I was pregnant with my second I went to LLL meetings and after talking to a few people, I decided to take fenugreek and blessed thistle. I had the pills with me and I started taking them after I gave birth. I wasn't sure they were working and Google (and maybe a lactation consultant?) eventually directed me to this product. This blend worked better for me than the herbs I had with me at the hospital. I do not recall the brands - but it was from the local organic store. In any case, I felt a difference in supply the next day after I started taking this. Eventually I stopped taking this because by then I had an excess and I woke up a few times with milk spilling from my breasts! After having so much trouble with my first I was thrilled - thrilled!- to have an oversupply. I am pretty sure I cried with joy. This blend may not work for every mom if the reason for your breastfeeding troubles is not low supply. I am not a lactation professional but they can help you determine if you need supplements at all or just a better latch, or if you need to nurse more often, or if the baby has a tongue tie... I hope nursing works for you, reader of this review. My best wishes.

Summary: I was hoping for a huge increase in supply. I may have seen a small increase, but not enough to say that these were absolutely helpful. If you're trying everything to increase your supply, I recommend these. However, if you're desperate for a solution that is scientifically proven to help, I'd recommend speaking with your doctor about getting a prescription pill. Here's info I hope will be helpful to all nursing moms that are looking for help increasing production: My friend recommended these to me when my daughter was four months old. She was sleeping through the night, so I'd stopped the overnight feedings for about 5 weeks. My body started to adjust to not having 2-3 feedings, so I was producing less milk. Then, we took her to a doctor's appointment and discovered that she'd only gained half a pound in six weeks. That explains the increase in crying! (I seriously felt like such a failure when I learned my newborn was underweight and hungry--and that's why she was getting so cranky. First-time mom--ugh!!) So my challenge was to build my milk supply back up so that we could avoid or minimize formula consumption (my husband and I are both clean eaters and there are no great formulas out there for our food preferences.) To get my supply back up, I: --Took these supplements as directed. --Had a dark beer every night (I went for a low-alcohol, flavorful raspberry beer that the man at the specialty beer store recommended). --Drank water like crazy (they say to drink an ounce for every pound of body weight you have. If I weigh 160, then I drink 160 ounces. For reference, a soda can is 12 ounces). --Stopped running. I'd gotten back into running and working out. I cut back and it seems to have made a difference. --Increased calorie consumption. Again, like with running, I'd started to cut calories in order to boost my baby weight burn. When I started eating more, my milk production also increased...along with these other actions I took to increase production. In conclusion, these seem to have made a difference--combined with other activities. I gave them four stars because I didn't perform a scientific test to determine whether or not they were solely responsible for my milk increase...like I said, I took them in conjunction with these other activities, so it's hard to say exactly how great their impact was. However, the first night I started taking them, I was able to pump an extra ounce. For us breastfeeding moms, we know that can be a HUGE increase at the end of the day!

I have used this product off and on during the past 8 months of nursing my daughter, and it is spectacular! It works better than the Motherlove More Milk (which does not have goats rue). At first when I tried this, I thought it upset my daughter's stomach, since she definitely had increased gas and hiccups, but that is NOT the case. I notice that other reviews have commented on this as well, and I will speculate that the real source of their baby's increased gas/ stomach issues is the same as mine: This product is so effective at increasing milk production that it may lead to overproduction issues, as it did with me. This includes a fast and foreceful milk let-down reflex, which can cause your baby to choke and swallow air - making them gassy and/ or causing hiccups. It also increases the amount of milk production, including foremilk production (the thin, bluish milk that comes out first). If your milk production has increased so much that your baby can't eat enough to get to the hindmilk (the fatty, high calorie milk that comes out at the end), your baby will get an imbalance of foremilk and hindmilk. Foremilk is a natural laxative, which is why breastfed babies don't get constipated, and it is high in lactose; without enough hindmilk to balance this, it gives your baby colicky symptoms. If you notice that your baby has green, frothy poop, this is a good indication that s/he is getting too much foremilk. *Milk Production*: I am away from my baby and pump 3 times a day at work. I pump 15 - 20 oz per day, and she only wants about 10 - 12 oz. I'm actively trying to produce a huge stash of breastmilk so that when my daughter weans, I will not have to start her on cow's milk for a few months. So far, I have over 50 4 oz bags stored in my standing freezer, and I just had to buy a chest freezer because we ran out of room! When I originally started pumping, I would get about 10 - 12 oz per day, so I saw a pretty sizable increase in the amount of milk I am pumping. *Dosage*: I have found that when I'm sick (mastitis, thrush, colds), my milk production goes down a little bit. When that happens, I take 1 capsule 4 times a day (6am, 12pm, 6pm, 12am), and I weigh 125 pounds. This gets my milk production back up, and then I usually cut the dose back to 1 capsule twice a day. Once the ingredients are in my system, I find that I don't need the full dose to maintain my milk production. *Let-down Reflex*: This product also helps decrease the time that it takes for my milk to let down, and with my impatient, easily-distracted daughter, that is really helpful! Before I started taking this, I couldn't feel my milk let-down, but now I definitely can. *Milk Quality*: One might wonder if the increased milk production leads to less than high quality milk. This is definitely not the case for me! My daughter is in the 100th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. It's comical, since neither my husband or I are super tall, and we're both a very healthy weight. I always have to shake my milk before I send it to the sitter, since there is a heavy layer of cream (fat) on top.

I used these to pump with my daughter and they seemed to work, more expensive but easier to take than other vitamins ( I will get to that), and you only have to take four a day. So I ordered them when I had my son a few months ago. I have been taking them and assumed they were helping. They gave me an upset stomach on more than one occasion. One day I decided to take some leftover fenugreek and blessed thistle vitamins instead of the motherslove. (I used these with my daughter sometimes bc they are cheaper than motherslove). I instantly pumped two extra ounces just from one pumping session. This makes sense because I had been feeling like the motherlove vitamins just aren't working- potentially aren't working like they did when I bought and used them a few years ago with my first child. If you want to increase your milk production, buy separate bottles of fenugreek and blessed thistle (both ingredients in motherlove vitamins). They are also cheaper. You have to take two tablets of each of them 3 times a day which is a lot, but they seem to work way better. I am upset because now I have a whole new unopened bottle of the motherlove tablets that now I cannot return. I am hoping that maybe I just got a bad bottle but I am pretty disappointed and mad that I wasted so much money.

I've tried this product after coming to the realization that I indeed have a low milk supply. My son was dropping really low on the growth charts (starting at 4 months) and decreasing wet and soil diapers. Just some background on me, I'm a breastfeeding peer counselor and successfully nursed my other 3 children to ages 1+ and through a pregnancy. So I was in real denial that I had a low supply and that I'd need to supplement. The doctor ran test on the baby(8 months) and all she could come up with is that I had a supply issue. I had to supplement with formula and went into overdrive in trying to increase my supply. After a few days I decided to buy this supplement just to hurry up the process. I doubled the dosage on the first day and timed my liquid drinking so that it didn't make the supplement ineffective. The very next morning I woke up very full and the one side that rarely produces any milk had a plugged milk duct (ouch and it took about 2 weeks to feel normal on that side again). I don't think the supplement made a dramatic difference it just was an added boost to what I was already doing which was eating oatmeal, manually power expressing (couldn't respond to a pump), manually expressing after the baby finished nursing, and during the night when the baby finished nursing or wouldn't nurse. I also increased my protein, and made sure to stay very well hydrated. I probably went from expressing a few drops after the baby nursed to being able to express a little over 2 ounces (mind you this being after the baby nursed). I stopped taking the supplement and within 2 weeks it dropped low on me again. So I will be back on this supplement until we wean, taking a break or coming up with a maintenance dose. And I learned a lesson just like every pregnancy is different so is your postpartum period!!!

This is actually the first review I've written on Amazon. I really believe this product helped me start and maintain a healthy breastfeeding relationship with my daughter for the past 10 months. I hope this product helps others as well. I started using More Milk Special Blend when my baby was about 2 weeks old. I had trouble with milk supply from day 1. I never got engorged or feel let down. My baby was losing weight after we came home from the hospital. We had to supplement with formula after the first week because she kept losing weight. Initially, I tried herbal teas, oatmeal, fenugreek, brewers yeast, pumping around the clock after feedings etc., but they did not seem to help. I started to take Motherlove Goat's Rue, 120 Vegetarian Capsules (FFP) at the recommendation of my lactation consultant, which seemed to help a little. I was feeling fuller at night when the stretch between feeding were longer. Then I switched to this product after more research about the benefits of combining multiple supplements. I did a 2 day pumping bootcamp and was able to increase my supply enough to be exclusively breastfeeding about 3 weeks after using this product. While I still have just enough milk and rarely can pump extra, I believe this product has helped me keep my milk supply adequate for my baby's needs. Being able to exclusively breastfeed and cosleep with my baby has been wonderful. I'm able to get enough rest and enjoy my baby. When I stopped taking this product for 2 weeks thinking I had established my milk supply, it actually dropped a few ounces/day. I started taking it again and my milk supply went back up after just a few days. I'm still taking the pills everyday and hope to continue breastfeeding as long as my baby wishes.

I am super happy with this meds. It’s be working great! Started seeing results after second dose. I highly recommend.

Easy to use! Increase milk supply!

I havent noticed a difference in my milk supply, idk if it doesn't work at all or it doesnt work just for me

Contains goats rue which gives me a noticable increase in supply. It can take a couple weeks for results with goats rue so don't give up until you have taken it for a few weeks.

I wanted to give it a try because I saw all these positive comments and was hopeful my milk supply would increase, but it did the opposite for me. It’s a hit or miss, I guess, but I wouldn't recommend it considering the price. There are other ways to increase milk supply without spending $65—stay hydrated, eat your flaxseed with oatmeal. Most importantly pump and nurse frequently, get plenty of rest. Wishing you all the best of luck on this journey.