Building Technology That Helps People: A Conversation with the Creator of Milk Diary
A Q&A with Kaya Thomas ’17, founder of Milk Diary
Apr 15, 2026
5 minute read
Courtney Hall
5 minute read
When she became a new parent, Dartmouth alumna and developer Kaya Thomas ’17 encountered a challenge familiar to many families: managing the feeding of a newborn. That personal experience led her to create Milk Diary, an app designed to reduce the logistical and mental load of infant feeding. Recently featured as Apple’s App of the Day, Milk Diary is Kaya’s latest project that reflects her commitment to building technology that solves real human problems.
She’s no stranger to this concept; her previous work, the iOS app We Read Too, was designed to help readers discover books for and by people of color. She has also worked for Calm, a company creating digital products focused on mindfulness, meditation, and sleep, used by millions.
In this conversation, she discusses how her experiences shaped Milk Diary, the importance of ethics in technology, and how her Dartmouth education continues to influence her work.
What led you to create Milk Diary?
I was in a season where I’d actually taken a step back from engineering. After graduate school, I was working in more client-facing roles, doing consulting and solutions work, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever build anything like an app again.
Then I had my daughter in 2024. Like a lot of first-time moms, I assumed feeding would be easy. You have the baby, and you breastfeed, and it’s beautiful and natural. That wasn’t the case for us. My daughter was very small and spent her first week in the NICU, which meant I needed to start pumping right away.
Suddenly, I felt like I was managing another job. I was constantly trying to figure out how much milk I had, how much she needed, how my pumping schedule lined up with feeding, and all of the logistics around that. My husband was incredibly supportive, but I still carried the mental load of keeping track of everything.
So, I started looking for technology to help. There were plenty of baby apps out there, but most were simply trackers and didn’t really help with the more complex logistical side of feeding. Eventually, I thought maybe I should build something myself. After my daughter turned one and I had a little more time, I started working on Milk Diary.
My goal was to help parents feel more confident in their feeding journey and ease the mental load that comes with it during an already stressful time.
What makes Milk Diary different from other apps?
A lot of existing apps are primarily trackers. They collect data, but don’t necessarily help you use that information in a practical way.
One of the first tools I built was a scheduling feature. When you’re pumping, maintaining a consistent schedule is essential for milk supply, and I constantly felt like I was doing the scheduling math myself. Milk Diary allows parents to create feeding or pumping schedules that automatically send reminders to their phone.
Another practical tool is milk storage management. Because I started pumping while my baby was in the NICU, I unintentionally created an oversupply and ended up with a lot of milk stored in the freezer. Keeping track of expiration dates and quantities involved a lot of mental math and spreadsheets. In the app, you can log what you have in the fridge or freezer, see expiration timelines, and estimate how long your supply might last based on how much your baby eats.
Because of my oversupply, I donated milk. With this app, you can track your supply of donated milk if your family uses it or record how much you’ve donated if you’re a donor.
What has it been like bringing the app to market?
It’s definitely been a learning experience. When I launched We Read Too back in 2014, the tech landscape was very different. Now, with so many apps on the market, it can be difficult to reach the right people and help them understand how your tool might help them.
Product development is something I feel very confident in. The marketing side has been more challenging. Being featured as Apple’s App of the Day helped tremendously because it provides credibility and validation.
New parenthood is a vulnerable time, and I completely understand why parents might hesitate to download a new app. There’s a lot of questionable content out there, and people want to know they can trust what they’re using.
Inclusion is a key part of the app’s design. Why was that important?
Many baby apps ask right away if you are the mom or the dad. But families look very different, and not everyone uses those terms.
With Milk Diary, I avoided that language. Instead, people identify their role and are part of a care team that supports the child. That way LGBTQ+ families, grandparents, or childcare providers can all feel represented.
Some parenting apps also use language that can feel patronizing. I wanted Milk Diary to feel welcoming and respectful for all families.
Your work often focuses on human-centered problems. Is that intentional?
Absolutely. The reason I gravitated toward technology in the first place at Dartmouth was because technology can help people and make their lives easier. If it’s not solving a human problem or positively impacting people, it doesn’t interest me. I try to be very intentional about the technology I build.
One thing that concerns me is that software development doesn’t really have an ethical code like other engineering fields do. If you build bridges, there are clear safety standards. However, anyone can create software and release it to the world. And I think developers have a responsibility to think about the ethical implications of what they’re building.
How are you thinking about topics like AI and privacy?
We are living in a time of overwhelming information online, especially for new parents. AI adds another layer to that. How can parents be sure that the information on an app is safe and reliable? And how can they be sure that their sensitive information is kept private?
The content on my app was created in partnership with a board-certified lactation consultant. It was important to me to have that expert involvement. As for AI, Milk Diary uses some AI features, but they run on the device rather than sending data to external services. Privacy is one of the core values of the app because feeding data and family information is very personal.
How did Dartmouth shape your approach to technology?
The liberal arts education had a big impact. Alongside computer science, I took courses on race, power, surveillance, and history. Those experiences helped me think about the broader societal impact of technology.
It’s easy for technologists to say they’re just building software, but technology always interacts with people. Dartmouth really encourages critical thinking and examining problems from multiple perspectives, and that has stayed with me.
What advice would you give Dartmouth students interested in technology?
Lean into the liberal arts.
Technical skills are important, and you need to understand how systems work. But technology is becoming easier to build, especially with AI tools.
What will set people apart is the ability to think critically about why something should be built and how it affects real people. Companies need people who can talk to users, understand their needs, and improve technology accordingly.
What’s next for Milk Diary?
The next phase of the app focuses on goals and outcomes.
Many parents begin their feeding journey with certain goals, like exclusively breastfeeding for the first year or ensuring an adequate milk supply when planning a return to work. However, challenges or lack of support can often make those goals difficult to reach. Milk Diary will allow families to set personalized goals for their feeding journey and see how their daily data relates to those goals.
If someone isn’t on track, the app can help provide resources that might help. Every feeding journey is different, and the goal tracking will be completely personalized for each family.
To learn more about Milk Diary, visit their website or download it on the iOS app store. .