Is Licorice safe while breastfeeding?
Here is what NIH LactMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's authority on medicines and breastfeeding, reports about Licorice. This is a summary of that source — not our own verdict.
Effects on the breastfed infant
Two breastfed infants, aged 15 and 20 days, were admitted to the hospital for a reported lack of weight gain in the previous 7 to 10 days, caused by "difficult feeding". The parents reported restlessness and vomiting during the past day. One of the mothers also reported feeling drowsy and weak. On examination, the infants were afebrile but had hypotonia, lethargy, emesis, weak cry, poor sucking and weak responses to painful stimuli. Infant laboratory values, electrocardiograms and blood pressures were normal, and septic work-ups were negative. Both mothers had both been drinking more than 2 liters daily of an herbal tea mixture reportedly containing licorice, fennel, anise, and goat's rue to stimulate lactation. After the mothers discontinued breastfeeding and the herbal tea, the infants improved within 24 to 36 hours. Symptoms of the affected mother also resolved rapidly after discontinuing the herbal tea. After 2 days, breastfeeding was reinstituted with no further symptoms in the infants. Both infants were doing well at 6 months of age. The authors attributed the maternal and infant symptoms to anethole, which is found in both anise and fennel; however, the anethole levels were not measured in breastmilk, nor were the teas tested for their content.[ 8 ]
Effects on milk supply
A woman with a history of excessive licorice intake had amenorrhea, severe headaches, hypertension, hypokalemia. She had elevated serum prolactin levels that remained abnormal for one month after licorice discontinuation and normalized by 6 months after discontinuation.[ 10 ] In a study of 25 men and 25 women, the baseline and thyrotropin-stimulated serum prolactin levels were measured to determine normal serum prolactin values. Subjects who regularly ingested licorice had lower basal and lower stimulated serum prolactin concentrations.[ 2 ] A traditional, nonstandardized decoction of peony and licorice roots called Shaoyao-Gancao-Tang in Chinese and Shakuyaku-Kanzo-To in Japanese was studied in women with elevated serum prolactin caused by long-term ( 6 months) ingestion of risperidone. Patients received either bromocriptine 5 mg daily for 4 weeks followed by 4 weeks of 22.5 grams daily of the peony-licorice decoction (equivalent to 25 mg of glycyrrhetinic acid), or the same drugs in the reverse order. Evaluation of serum prolactin found that both treatments reduced serum prolactin by 21 to 28% from baseline at 4 and 8 weeks.[ 11 ] Forty women who complained of an insufficient milk supply at 5 days postpartum were given a combination herbal supplement as 2 capsules of Lactare (Pharma Private Ltd., Madras, India; currently available from TTK Pharma, Chennai, India) 3 times daily. Each capsule contained wild asparagus 200 mg, ashwagandha ( Withania somnifera ) 100 mg, fenugreek 50 mg, licorice 50 mg, and garlic 20 mg. By day 4 of therapy, no infants required supplementary feeding. Infants were weighed before and after each feeding on the fifth day of maternal therapy to determine the amount of milk ingested. On the day of the test weighing, infants' milk intake averaged 388 mL, and the fluid and caloric intake was considered adequate.[ 12 ] This study cannot be considered as valid evidence of a galactogogue effect of these herbs because it lacks randomization, blindi
Levels in milk
Maternal Levels. Ten lactating women with breast engorgement were treated with the Kakkonto extract granules (Tsumura, [Juntendo, Japan]), which contains a mixture of various herb extracts, including licorice. The dose was 2.5 grams 3 times daily (about 400 mg daily of licorice extract). Glycyrrhizin was measured in the breastmilk at unspecified times. Glycyrrhizin was detected in 2 women at 1.14 mg/L and 0.15 mg/L, and in 3 women at 0.1 mg/L. It was undetectable in the remaining 5 women.[ 9 ] Infant Levels. Relevant published information was not found as of the revision date.
Source: NIH LactMed (National Library of Medicine).
Educational summary of an authoritative source — not medical advice. Never start, stop, or change a medicine while breastfeeding without confirming with your doctor.