What foods affect your breast milk?

**BekZ** · January 1st, 2008, 10:21 AM

I have a very windy 3wk old and I was wondering what foods affect breast milk?

I haven't restricted my diet at all and now I am begining to think I should look at eliminating some foods. Having bub over Christmas has meant that I have eaten too much chocolate and sweets and I was wondering if these type of foods affect my breast milk.

What have others experienced?

**Liviam** · January 1st, 2008, 10:40 AM

The only thing that affects Olivia is a really spicy spag bol. She poos and poos and poos. Nothing makes her windy though. It's hard to know where to start sometimes though isn't it? Goodluck sorting it out.

**Artechim** · January 1st, 2008, 11:28 AM

I can't eat much sugary stuff or bub gets a sore belly, spewy and windy. I can get away with ice cream and small amounts of chocolate but biscuits and cakes are still a no go.

**Roryrory** · January 1st, 2008, 11:40 AM

I noticed the same thing re: sugar when I ate half a pack of sugar jubes....

**Campari** · January 1st, 2008, 11:57 AM

Yep, I have found too much sugar to cause problems - not sure though whether it was the sugar or all the other preservatives and colourings they put in lollies. I was a bit of a Starburst addict. No more

My DDs "colicky" pains (?wind?) really cleared up once I stopped eating nuts and dried fruit. I had thought I was being really good by cutting back on sugar and chocolate, and switching to healthy nuts etc, but on the suggestion of a MCHN I stopped eating nuts and muesli, and it made a huge difference. Now that DD is 4 months I am going to start re-introducing them and see how we go.

Its also possible that cucumber and capsicum were a no-no for us, as big healthy salads seemed to upset DD too. I'm trying to eat all that sort of stuff in moderation - ie. I will have a piece or two of cucumber, but pass on the capsicum soup!

I've heard that it takes 4 hours for the food we eat to get in to our BM, and then another 1 - 1.5 hours for the baby to digest it after a feed. So, its possible that if you've eaten something disagreeable, it might take 5 hours to show up as wind? Maybe Barb can provide more advice on that - I'm not sure where I heard it?? For me, it was pretty much right, cause it was my breakfast that was causing early afternoon pains and sleep issues for my DD.

Good luck!

**pollyanna** · January 1st, 2008, 12:03 PM

from what i recall, there were a lot of no go zones and milk was one of them as well as cofee. So swiched to dandelion tea with coffee mate.eeeewwww-but better than nothing at all. Chocolate was a bad no no. It gave bubby bad reflux and poos and a few days later even pimples...lol.
Forget all your caffeine products and spicey foods too. Everything in moderation, i think is the key. you just have to see where their tolerance is with new foods. Interested to see what barb says

**chrysalis** · January 1st, 2008, 01:07 PM

lentils, chickpeas and pulses gave my little guy a very windy tummy up to about 12 weeks!

**Lucy** · January 1st, 2008, 01:17 PM

Chocolate was a big no no for me when I was breastfeeding all 3 of mine............

**AnyDream** · January 1st, 2008, 01:20 PM

Ummm have only ever found chocolate to have beneficial effects...(well on my state of mind anyway)! TBH have never noticed unsettledness relating to any foods...though I steer clear of really spicy stuff (ie chilli), I just can't handle it these days.

**Curly** · January 2nd, 2008, 06:19 PM

Chocolate! Could not even have 1 square of chocolate without it giving DS bad wind.

Caffeine - he was much more difficult to settle to sleep when I'd had a cuppa.

Alcohol - even the MCHN suggested if I drank half a glass of wine would help settle DS to sleep but NOOOOO...it would rev him up. I had four sips of champagne on my birthday and he was up for 5 hours. I can have a little bit of wine now but I do notice that he might wake up twice at night instead of once when I do have a drink.

Processed food - I was starving all the time and found myself making lots of flavoured packet rice. Had to cut that out too.

I am still bfing DS - he just turned 15 months and still has never slept through the night so that's the main reason. I had a curry on New Year's Eve, first time since before I was pregnant. thought I'd take a chance - and it badly disagreed with him. He woke up 4 times in 4 hours and even had 3 little vomits the following morning.

Sigh. But my DS seems to be an extreme case.

I recommend cutting out the chocolate first thing. If chocolate is the culprit you will know in 24-48 hours. My DS was like a different baby.

ETA - I forgot icecream! Also made him windy and difficult to settle.

ETA2 - But cutting all this out meant that I got back into my pre-pregnancy jeans pretty easily! So every cloud has a silver lining...although it did take me about 3-4 months to figure all this out. Other common culprits can be onion, garlic, orange juice and cabbage, but for my DS it was all processed food.

**Barb Glare** · January 3rd, 2008, 02:57 PM

Hi,
Breastfeeding isn't meant to be a pennance! The good news is that most women can eat pretty much everything and anything they want. A little bit of everything gets passed through the milk to the baby, and a a result, research tells us that BF babies take to solids more easily and enjoy a greater range of foods.
The holiday season can make for an unsettled baby. Often their are family celebrations - lots of car trips, unfamiliar sights and sounds, hot weather, interrupted sleep, people passing her around. and a mum more anxious than usually for baby to be settled and a "good" baby (AKA a sleeping baby) This is all going to take more of a toll on the "settledness" of baby than anything mum eats!
Tell me, is your little one back above birthweight? What is her pattern of waking and sleeping?
Occasionally experience does show that babies are affected by certain foods. Often family history can give us a clue. Does anyone on either side of your families suffer from food allergies of intolerances?
I'd be looking at things other than food you are eating before you began eliminating things from your diet and then doing some detective work re likely intolerances
Warm Regards
Barb

**Mollygirl** · January 3rd, 2008, 04:42 PM

I've got a different baby since I stopped caffeine and reverted to decaf coffee (accidently had a coffee at starbucks the other day and she didn't sleep all afternoon). I also found that after 3 months she doesn't seem as affected by what I eat as she used to. I also found alcohol unsettled her which is opposite to my son (now 3yo) who slept better the next day when I had a small glass.

Basically anything that gave me wind or upset me, capiscum, orange juice, too many cherries at Christmas time, upset her as well. I could not pinpoint everything and used infants friend regularly.

Goodluck and I hope you see an improvement in a couple of months like i did.

**aussienic** · January 3rd, 2008, 05:40 PM

I am going to take Barbs advice here and see if Olivia settles down now that DH goes back to work tomorrow and life settles back into some sort of normality..

I haven't found chocolate makes any difference. salt and vinegar chips seemed to make Olivia unsettled but it might have just been a one off. as she has been unsettled on and off even though I didn't eat them again..

**Trish** · January 3rd, 2008, 07:22 PM

Well for me I am thinking mangos do it for Abbey. It was the only thing I really had diff since she was born and yesterday she was pooing up a storm all day. And she had a heap of wind. I so hope it was just a coincidence. I love my mangos.

**aussienic** · January 3rd, 2008, 07:36 PM

nooooo not the mangoes??? giving up my salt and vinegar chips sucked but at least they were bad for me but mangoes... no way

**christy** · January 3rd, 2008, 07:41 PM

LOL its individual really. Jovie is allergic to cows milk... bananas, oats and penicillin. So far that we know of that has gone through my breast milk & given her outbreaks of ezcema and reflux. She used to react to soy milk but soy products aren't as bad anymore. We have been to an allergist with her as its still happening now after 14 months of breastfeeding & that is how we've realised that for her its allergies and not just intolerances.

As with everything I would recommend if you find something they react too, avoid it! And consult someone about it. Unfortunately for us it took heaps of investigation and through our lactation consultant we found avenues of how to find out what was affecting her.

Our GP just told us to stop breastfeeding & go to an elemental formula but I'm so thankful I didn't listen to her.

**kitten2b** · January 3rd, 2008, 08:41 PM

for Sofia it is chicken which is unfortunate as it is one of my favourite foods, but it does make me windy and makes Sofia very very unsettled.

**BekZ** · January 5th, 2008, 07:36 PM

Wow thanks for all your respones.

Barb - Loren sleeps well through the day and is extremely unsettled over night. She has regained her birth weight. My night consists of feeding from 9pm on and off til midnight. She may sleep then till 2.30 and then up for another feed and then she is unsettled until some time the next morning (around 6am). I get up to her every 1/2 hour to hour. Most of that time she is grunting like she is trying to poo, but nothing comes out.

Loren is also chucking up after or even during her feeds. After every feed Loren cries and squeels with pain. I am lactose and gluten intolerant and my DD was lactose intolerant as a baby but she has come good now.