how long does food you eat stay in your milk?

[bethdivine]

DD is 10wks and today and yesterday, has been screaming like she's in agony a short time after a feed, so it's obviously feed related. She's on infacol already, but doesn't usually do this, so I'm wondering if it's something I've eaten for tea on both days (pepper and onions in both meals, so I'm thinking it might be htem as both affected DS when I was feeding him). Does anybody know how long what you've eaten can affect their feeds before I start cutting things out of my diet?
TIA

[whomovedmychocolate]

Four to six hours I believe. But you will find things like colic just pass naturally in time so don't worry too much. more likely to be teeth/wind related than anything and may not be affected by your food at all

[bethdivine]

thanks, I remember with DS painfully working out what upset him as a few things did, which I had to cut out - stuff like orange juice and sweetcorn I haven't even bothered eating this time around as the effect they had on him were so strong it just wasn't worth it. It's just the extreme piercing SCREAMING she's been doing for over an hour, same yesterday, and she's napped as normal, nothing different to her day and now kicking on her back letting out huge farts bless her. I'll be honest I thought maybe I was consuming too much chocolate and would have to cut that out, but if it's likely to just be wind from no cause relating to my food, then I'll stick with the choc - it's the only thing getting me through with a 10wk old and 2yr old at the moment!

[tiktok]

bethdivine, this is a hard question Food does not go into the milk in the way you imply - some flavours go in, some proteins go in, but mostly, the mother's diet really does not impact on the breastmilk at all.

For most people, things prob should be really, really desperate before you start complicating life by changing your diet. A baby apparently screaming in agony is getting to the desperate stage, IMO, though, but if it is only an occasional event the chances of finding a dietary link are v. slim.

[bethdivine]

thanks tiktok, you really should receive a mumsnet lifetime award you're a life saver on this thread!