If you have any questions about this information, you can contact the Drugs in Breastmilk team through their Facebook page or on druginformation@breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk.
Daily vitamin D is recommended while you are breastfeeding.
We don’t have evidence available for herbal or health remedies containing multiple ingredients.
You should usually avoid high dose supplements except where you have an established deficiency- see below for more information.
In this Factsheet
Looking after yourself can take effort, especially when you are also caring for young children. It can be difficult to know where to find information. This factsheet covers several areas including:
For information on recovering from illness, exercise and building muscle and losing weight, please see our factsheet on Recovering from Illness and Improving your Heath.
Daily Vitamins for Your Body’s Everyday Needs
What do I need while I am breastfeeding?
National guidelines from NICE and the NHS recommend that if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you should take a daily vitamin D supplement (10micrograms or 400IU a day), especially between October and March. This is because your body produces vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin, and between October and early March, the sun is not strong enough for the body to make enough vitamin D.
If you are at a higher risk of vitamin D deficiency you are particularly advised to take vitamin D (10micrograms or 400IU a day) throughout the year. This could apply to you if:
- You have darker skin, for example, if you are of African, African-Caribbean or South Asian ethnicity. This is because you may need more sunlight exposure to produce the same amount of vitamin D as people with lighter skin pigmentation
or
- If you have little or no exposure to sunshine because you are not often outdoors or usually wear clothes that cover up most of your skin when outdoors.
Vitamin D for your baby
NICE and the NHS also recommended that your baby receives a vitamin D supplement while they’re breastfeeding and beyond into childhood. You can both safely take vitamin D at the same time. You can read more about vitamin D while breastfeeding on the NHS colecalciferol webpage and about vitamin supplementation for your child on the NHS Start for Life – Vitamins for babies page.
As long as you are eating a varied and balanced diet, you don’t need to take any other special vitamins while breastfeeding, unless you have been advised to by a healthcare professional. If you are having unprotected sex and could become pregnant, the NHS also recommends you take a daily supplement of folic acid. However, you can find out more below about other individual vitamins, supplements and herbal remedies you may be wondering about.
Multivitamins?
Are multivitamins needed? The short answer is probably not. Most people do not need to take a daily multivitamin if they are eating a varied and balanced diet. However, you may need a multivitamin, or you may choose to take a multivitamin, if you’ve had surgery affecting your stomach or gastrointestinal tract and the procedure affects your absorption of nutrients. You may also need multivitamins if you’re eating less than usual due to medication affecting your appetite, or perhaps for a short time during or after illness.
If you do take a multivitamin, a complete, standard, over-the-counter multivitamin is adequate. You do not need to buy expensive or breastfeeding-specific multivitamins.
Ensure your multivitamin contains vitamin D 10 micrograms (also known as 400IU).
Healthy Start vitamins contain a daily 400 microgram dose of folic acid, and vitamins C and D. These should be available locally to you if you’re eligible to receive them for free. You can find out more about Healthy Start vitamins on the NHS Healthy Start webpage.
Avoid “high dose” products to ensure you’re not taking more than the recommended daily intake. Some vitamins are unsuitable to take in high doses (over 100% daily recommended intake) when you are breastfeeding. Specialist resources don’t always have information available on the safety of high doses of vitamins and supplements while breastfeeding.
Public Health England provides Government Dietary Recommendations for energy and nutrients for children and adults.
There are some vitamins and supplements which you should avoid in high doses specifically when breastfeeding. These include (but are not limited to):
Usual daily needs are about 140micrograms.
Avoid taking more than 150micrograms daily/ 100% recommended daily allowance (RDA)
See Lactmed and NHS – Iodine for more information.
Usual daily needs are about 600 micrograms. In lactation this increases up to 950 micrograms.
There is no need to take more than 950micrograms daily while breastfeeding.
See the NHS – Vitamin A for more information.
Usual daily needs are about 2-3mg.
Avoid taking more than 50-100mg daily regularly. See e-lactancia for more information.
Monitor your baby for enough wet and dirty nappies daily if you are taking higher than the usual daily amount of 2-3mg.
Usual needs are about 7mg daily. During breastfeeding these needs may rise to 11-14mg daily.
Avoid doses over 15mg daily. See e-lactancia for more information.
There is more detail on the individual components of multivitamin supplements below.
Daily Vitamins and Deficiency
If you are deficient in a particular vitamin, your healthcare professional may advise you to take additional or higher dose supplements. Common deficiencies include:
You can read about standard vitamin D recommendations when breastfeeding above.
Vitamin D deficiency is more common than you may think, with around 20% of adults having vitamin D deficiency. While routine vitamin D testing is not recommended by national guidelines, this is occasionally done opportunistically, or because of reported symptoms of vitamin D deficiency.
Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency can include:
- Chronic, widespread bone and muscle pain.
- Muscle weakness.
- Fatigue and low mood.
- Bone fracture caused by only a small fall, or in some cases unexplained (known as fragility fracture.)
- Osteomalacia (soft bones) or osteoporosis (weakened bones).
- Some people may have no symptoms at all.
National guidelines on diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency state that when vitamin D (serum 25[OH]D) levels are tested, the following levels indicate:
- An increased risk of vitamin D deficiency occurs at vitamin D levels less than 25 nmol/L.
- Vitamin D levels may be inadequate (or insufficient) in some people when vitamin D is between 25–50 nmol/L.
- Vitamin D levels are sufficient for most people when vitamin D is greater than 50 nmol/L.
If you are diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency, national guidelines recommend treatment with a loading dose of vitamin D. This is a course of higher-dose vitamin D that will correct your deficiency before you move to a daily maintenance dose of over-the-counter vitamin D. The loading dose of vitamin D is a total of 280,000 to 300,000IU over 6-10 weeks. This loading dose can be given in various ways. Some examples include:
- 50,000 IU once a week for 6 weeks (300,000 IU in total).
- 40,000 IU once a week for 7 weeks (280,000 IU in total).
- 4000 IU daily for 10 weeks (280,000 IU in total).
- 800 IU five times a day for 10 weeks (280,000 IU in total).
Vitamin D is available as vitamin D2 and vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 is the treatment of choice in vitamin D deficiency (vitamin D and bone health).
Guidelines from SPS recommend that a daily maintenance dose of up to 4,000IU daily is compatible with breastfeeding and is not expected to cause side effects in your child.
Other expert sources recommend that doses of 4,000-6,000IU taken daily are expected to be compatible with breastfeeding (Lactmed, e-lactancia, Hale). Doses above 4,000IU daily may require your infant to be monitored by their healthcare professional.
Vitamin D 4,000IU once DAILY for 10 weeks – A loading regimen for vitamin D deficiency of 4,000IU daily for 10 weeks followed by a usual maintenance supplementation of vitamin D discussed below would be the preferred treatment while breastfeeding.
If faster correction of vitamin D levels are needed:
Vitamin D 50,000IU once WEEKLY for 6 weeks only may be considered while breastfeeding, however you will need to monitor your child for more wet nappies than usual, sleepiness, tummy upset, changes in feeding, irritability and skin reactions or rash.
Vitamin D 800-2,000IU once daily- Following a loading dose of vitamin D, your healthcare professional will guide you to buy ongoing maintenance and prevention therapy of vitamin D, usually in a dose of 800-2000IU daily.
If you have had treatment for your vitamin D deficiency, you won’t usually need routine monitoring of your vitamin D levels.
If your vitamin D levels are considered insufficient, your healthcare professional will usually direct you to buy an over-the-counter supplement of vitamin D 800–2000IU once daily.
You don’t need folic acid when/ because you’re breastfeeding, unless your healthcare professional has told you that you’re deficient in folic acid.
If you could become pregnant, if you’re planning your next pregnancy or if you’re already pregnant, you should take a folic acid 400micrograms supplement once daily. Ideally, you would start this 3 months before you become pregnant and usually continue until you are 12 weeks pregnant.
Folic acid 400micrograms once daily is compatible with breastfeeding.
Folic Acid Deficiency and high-dose supplementation
Some people are offered a high-dose folic acid supplement (5mg a day) if they have folic acid deficiency, or if they require a higher dose of folic acid during pregnancy. You may need folic acid for the duration of your pregnancy if you have certain medical conditions. Your healthcare professional will guide you on whether you need high-dose folic acid in pregnancy, and how long you will need to take it for.
Folic acid 5mg tablets are compatible with breastfeeding.
You can find out more about folic acid requirements on the NHS- folic acid webpage.
If you’re following a restricted diet, either because you’re vegan, or gluten free, you may need to increase your dietary intake of vitamin B12 through other food sources, or drinks. If this isn’t easy, or possible, you may need to take a vitamin B12 supplement or ensure your multivitamin contains B12.
Vitamin B12 supplements are compatible while breastfeeding.
You can find out more about vitamin B12 while breastfeeding on the NHS cyanocobalamin webpage.
Vitamin B12 Deficiency
People who are vegetarian, vegan or on a restricted diet may be at risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. Some regular medications can affect your B12 levels. If you have pernicious anaemia you will also need treatment for B12 deficiency.
If you can absorb vitamin B12 orally, you will usually be offered a daily tablet supplement of vitamin B12:
Cyanocobalamin 1mg tablets are compatible with breastfeeding.
For more information, see Taking cyanocobalamin while breastfeeding- NHS
If oral supplementation is inadequate, or if you are unable to absorb vitamin B12 in your stomach, either due to gastric surgery, or conditions that cause malabsorption, such as coeliac disease or pernicious anaemia, you will be offered replacement by injection:
Hydroxocobalamin injections 1mg/ml- you may be offered an initial loading dose followed by maintenance injections. This is usually one injection every 12 weeks but may be given as frequently as every 8 weeks.
Hydroxocobalamin is compatible with breastfeeding.
For more information, see Hydroxocobalamin while breastfeeding – NHS
Iron deficiency anaemia is often discovered during routine blood tests. National Guidelines recommend treatment for iron deficiency is usually once daily for 3 months:
Ferrous sulfate, ferrous fumarate, or ferrous gluconate- usually taken once daily. If you can’t tolerate these, you might take them every other day on the recommendation of your healthcare professional instead.
Ferrous sulfate, ferrous fumarate, or ferrous gluconate iron supplements are compatible with breastfeeding.
Over-the-counter iron supplements including own brand tablets and lower dose sachets such as Spatone® are also considered compatible with breastfeeding.
You can read more about ferrous sulphate and fumarate on the NHS website.
Health and Dietary Supplements including Vitamins, Minerals and Herbal Remedies
It’s common to be worried about postnatal symptoms, such as hair loss, or being tired. You may also want to naturally improve your health more generally through optimising your intake of particular vitamins and minerals.
Post-partum hair loss is normal and common. You might feel quite distressed seeing more hair loss than you are used to when washing or brushing your hair. This usually slows down and you can generally expect your hair to improve again.
If you are worried about any symptoms in particular, if you’re not getting better, or if symptoms are getting worse, you can make an appointment at your GP practice where your healthcare professional will assess you.
Herbal and dietary supplements are not regulated to the same standards as medicines in the UK, and will not have undergone the same stringent testing, so we do not have evidence for all of them, particularly in breastfeeding.
Unfortunately, we are unable to comment on supplements which contain large numbers of ingredients. Sometimes herbal or health remedies contain ingredients on which we have no data.
Lactmed Dietary supplements briefly discusses dietary supplements.
Below are lists of some ingredients we are asked about. Where possible, we have shared relevant links to information on the supplement. Please read the link, as inclusion below does not mean these are compatible with breastfeeding. These are not exhaustive lists.
Common vitamins and minerals – click for drop-down list
See the NHS webpage for more information on the vitamins and minerals below
Zinc – e-lactancia and see above
Vitamin A see above
Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) – e-lactancia Vitamin C is considered compatible with breastfeeding, even at higher doses.
Biotin (vitamin B7) – e-lactancia is compatible with breastfeeding. Usual daily needs are around 26micrograms daily, with a range of 10-58micrograms being acceptable while breastfeeding. There is no need to exceed 150micrograms daily.
Cobalamin (vitamin B12) see above
Niacin (vitamin B3) – e-lactancia
Pantothenic Acid (vitamin B5) – e-lactancia
Pyridoxine (vitamin B6) – e-lactancia (see above also)
Riboflavin (vitamin B2) – e-lactancia
Thiamine (vitamin B1) – e-lactancia
Folic acid – e-lactancia and see above
Iron – e-lactancia and see above
Beta-carotene e-lactancia, beta-carotene is turned into vitamin A in your body.
Magnesium – e-lactancia is available in several forms, these are generally considered compatible at usual doses of up to 450mg, higher doses of magnesium are poorly absorbed and likely to cause diarrhoea.
Supplements based on common food ingredients – click for drop-down list
Cod liver oil and Omega-3 Fatty Acids (DHA, EPA, ALA) – e-lactancia
Fenugreek – Lactmed see our Increasing Milk Supply – use of galactagogues factsheet for more information.
Prebiotics and probiotics are not absorbed into your body. They are considered compatible with breastfeeding.
Other supplements and herbal remedies – click for drop-down list
Bronchostop – e-lactancia and Thyme – e-lactancia
Evening primrose oil – e-lactancia
Feverfew – Lactmed – we currently have no information available on the use of feverfew.
L-arginine see arginine – e-lactancia
Propolis (bee propolis/ bee glue) – e-lactancia – avoid direct contact with the baby, do not apply on the chest.
St. John’s Wort – Lactmed has potent effects on other medications. It will stop most hormonal contraception from working properly and may affect other prescribed medications. There are alternative, safer medications which are carefully monitored and have more evidence of use. These are preferred over St John’s Wort.
Valerian – Lactmed is found in Kalms® herbal remedies and Nytol® herbal remedies. These come in a variety of options, always check the ingredients. Herbal remedies containing valerian cause drowsiness. They may affect your ability to respond to your baby and the safety of bedsharing. See Basis Online for information on safe sleeping.
Foods that can be used for health properties
Foods are usually considered compatible with breastfeeding when consumed in usual quantities in meals or prepared to eat as recommended. Some supplements are made from high amounts of food products concentrated into a single supplement. We cannot comment on whether these are compatible with breastfeeding in the absence of available data and evidence. Some examples include:
- Lion’s mane mushroom- we currently have no information available on the use of Lions mane.
- Powdered Greens- we currently have no information available on the use of powdered greens.
Supplements/remedies that are NOT recommended whilst breastfeeding
The following remedies have either limited or no evidence of use while breastfeeding and may pose a risk to your breastmilk supply, or of side effects to your breastfed child.
| Ashwagandha – e-lactancia – avoid | Guarana – e-lactancia – avoid |
| Bladderwrack – e-lactancia – avoid | Kava-kava – e-lactancia – avoid |
| Black Snakeroot – e-lactancia – avoid | Tiratricol – e-lactancia – avoid |
| Buckthorn – Lactmed – avoid | Uva Ursi – Lactmed – avoid |
| Dong Quai – Lactmed – avoid | Wild wormwood – e-lactancia – avoid |
| Ephedra – e-lactancia – avoid | Silky wormwood – e-lactancia – avoid |
| Ginkgo biloba – e-lactancia – avoid | Black Cohosh – e-lactancia – avoid |
| Ginseng (Panax ginseng) – Lactmed – avoid |
CBD
CBD, short for cannabidiol, is derived from cannabis. On its own, it is legal and is not intoxicating (it won’t get you “high”). However, it may have other effects. It is marketed to aid relaxation and is sold as a herbal supplement in a variety of products, including oils, capsules and gummies. There are various alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks available with multiple added ingredients including CBD, caffeine and stimulants. You can find out more about drinking alcohol in our alcohol and breastfeeding factsheet. We have very little information on these additional stimulant products while breastfeeding.
The government Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) advises that you should avoid products containing CBD if you are breastfeeding. The resources we have highlight the limited information available on CBD and breastfeeding, and the possible risks, based on what we know about cannabis and breastfeeding. (Food Standards Agency)
You can read more about this from CBD – e-lactancia and Cannabidiol – Lactmed. Government resources highlight that CBD products may also contain THC. THC is the component of cannabis that can make you feel “high”, and it is not legal in the UK. CBD and THC stay in your body for a long time, which means that more of the drug could be transferred to your child, particularly with repeated use. We therefore suggest that you avoid products containing CBD whilst breastfeeding.
Accidental consumption of CBD?
As a one off, the risk if you accidentally consume one of these products is relatively low, especially while breastfeeding a baby over one year of age. However, some risk cannot be ruled out, particularly if breastmilk is the main or sole source of milk for your baby, or if your baby is newborn or premature.
If you have accidentally consumed a product containing CBD, please contact the Drugs in Breastmilk team for more information.
Related Factsheets
Bibliography
Click to see bibliography
British National Formulary – https://bnf.nice.org.uk/
Drugs and Lactation Database (LactMed®) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK501922/
Specialist Pharmacy Service: https://www.sps.nhs.uk/
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/using-vitamin-d-during-breastfeeding
NHS medicines website: https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/
E Lactancia website: https://www.e-lactancia.org/
NICE Clinical Knowledge summaries: https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/vitamin-d-deficiency-in-adults
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/vitamin-d-deficiency-in-children
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/anaemia-iron-deficiency
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng247
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng239
https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc
Hale T. W. Medications in Mothers Milk. www.halesmeds.com
Dr Wendy Jones, Breastfeeding and Medication website: https://breastfeeding-and-medication.co.uk/
https://theros.org.uk/information-and-support/food-and-supplements/vitamin-d
https://www.bda.uk.com/resource-report/breastfeeding-policy-statement.html
https://www.nutrition.org.uk/nutrition-for/baby/breastfeeding
Government Dietary Recommendations Government recommendations for energy and nutrients for males and females aged 1 – 18 years and 19+ years. Dietary Requirements Published August, 2016
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-committee-on-nutrition
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7cdac7e5274a2c9a484867/dh_123492.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coma-reports
https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/cannabidiol-cbd
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mhra-statement-on-products-containing-cannabidiol-cbd
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/using-contraception-with-enzyme-inducing-medicines/.
©The Breastfeeding Network. Version 1.0. First published July 2026.
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