Can prenatal vitamins and other supplements affect the smell and the taste of breast milk? In my experience, yes. Many women are advised to take prenatal vitamins and many other supplements during pregnancy and they continue to take them into breastfeeding. I'm Dr Robin and I would like to share with you some of my observations that I have learned about supplements from being beside thousands of breastfeeding mothers and their babies. There are many reasons why a baby might be crying and unsettled, fussy or even refusing the breast. However, in my experience, the first question that I would ask a mother is, are you swallowing one or more common denominators daily, such as prenatal vitamins, herbs or even powdered drinks? In most cases, the answer was yes. And for many of these women, their babies started to settle within two to five days after doing a test by stopping them. One mother, for example, was encouraged to take a powdered drink supplement by a family member and her baby was extremely unsettled. Similarly, another mother identified pure fish oil in her breast milk and her baby was gagging. Finally, another mother identified a very bitter taste in her breast milk from her prenatal multivitamin capsules. Within 48 hours of the mother's not swallowing these supplements, their babies had settled down and were no longer screaming in pain. This experience gave me the opportunity to collect extensive data on the things that women were swallowing in pregnancy. Now, I'm not suggesting that you stop taking prescribed medications. However, my encouragement is to ask yourself if you need to be taking supplements that perhaps you had been taking during pregnancy. And also, have you been advised to review the side effects of anything that you swallow? There are many reasons why a baby might be crying and unsettled. However, the evidence in my research clearly identifies that the presence of supplements can and often does affect the taste and the smell of your breast milk, which may result in breast refusal and a very fussy breastfed baby. I'm Dr. Robin and I really encourage you to observe your baby's cues and to trust your maternal instincts they will never be wrong.