'Witch's milk'. Galactorrhea in the newborn

D. J. Madlon-Kay

For a five month period, infants examined on admission and discharge from the newborn nursery and at two-week and two-month well-baby visits were examined for breast nodule size and the presence of galactorrhea. Nine hundred eighty-four examinations were performed on 640 children. Forty-five examinations (4.6%) on 38 infants revealed galactorrhea. "Witch's milk" was noted at all ages studied, including 1.8% of examinations at 2 months of age. All the infants with galactorrhea were born at term, with neither sex predominating. Children with galactorrhea had breast nodules significantly larger than those of children without galactorrhea. None of these infants was hypothyroid. This study concludes that witch's milk is a common occurrence, associated with larger than average breast nodules, and may persist until 2 months of age in normal newborns.