is it a bad idea to eat spicy food/pulses after a c-section?

[titferbrains]

I like my food highly seasoned, I tend to eat a lot of spicy veg/little bit of meat dishes like veggie chilli with bits of chorizo, or veggie dal with some grilled chicken, stir fries with chilli bean paste, ginger, garlic etc. and am wondering if that kind of food is going to disagree with c-section recovery??? Was just thinking about making a big batch of veggie chilli for freezer but perhaps not??

I am on liquid iron and other meds and am having no trouble going to the loo, I eat a bit of dried fruit each day. Presume iron is going to continue for a bit after op.

I'm not really a fan of english food but will knock up some tasty, more plain stews if that is a better idea, to be served with plenty of green veg.

[QTPie]

Don't see shy it would be a problem when you are used to food like that....

Very good idea to stock your freezer with as much as you can :)

[Highlander]

Don't be daft - eat what you want!

[metalelephant]

If you plan to breastfeed you may want to avoid food such as onions, garlic, broccoli and spicy lovely things because it can give the baby painful wind. As they grow older you can indulge again. (Somehow I forgot this advice myself and all the frozen dinners I have prepared are full of onion and garlic)

[titferbrains]

Tks for advice, am a bit wary of cutting out basics like onions and garlic as I eat them pretty much every day - am sure that baby will have adjusted to these a bit in the womb no?? Will see how I get on, will have a doula so can easily bug her for answers if baby seems overly windy. Think I will be a bit careful with spicy food initially tho.

[PrincessScrumpy]

I had a slightly spicy curry - really mild with loads of creme fraiche. Nothing to do with being blocked up but bf dd and she screamed all the next day and her poo came out green! (it's a sign of colic which she suffered from but the food I ate definitely affected her. I'll go for bland to start with this time).

[QTPie]

But I also breastfed and has various things (including onions, garlic, broccoli, chili sauce etc) without any affect on DS (breastfed for 11 months) with no problems. No colic and not a windy baby at all (surpringly little actually.... Makes up for it now at 19 months!).

So I would say "have alternatives available" and watch how your LO is after eating various days.

We thought that DS had colic at 2/3 weeks, but it turned out to be just "overtiredness": once we got a bedtime routine going and got him in bed at a semi-regular time, the screaming stopped in 2 to 3 days. So we were lucky to avoid colic altogether :)

[QTPie]

Did have bright green poos (for a few weeks -at about 4/5 weeks onwards - but not other problems)... Apparently it can be very common. DS piled on the weight and was completely happy.

[Highlander]

Metaelephant - evidence, please.

Cos I can't find any evidence that onions, garlic and spicy food gives a baby wond.

[ZhenXiang]

Second the advice about watching how what you eat affects DC if you intend to breastfeed, although I didn't have any problems with DD breastfeeding when I ate curries, but then I ate a lot when she was in the womb so maybe she was used to it.

I had EMCS and found I had a lot of bloating and wind afterwards due to air trapped inside during operation and also it took a while for my intestines to get back to functioning normally afterwards. The wind was quite painful at points, so you may want to stay away from additional wind producing foods such as pulses if that happens.

Lactalose is a good standby for constipation if you do have problems after the CS.

[Continuum]

I deliberately switched to a veggie diet after my c-section because it makes going to the loo much easier, and it did!

I also ate all kinds of stuff and it wasn't a problem for breastfeeding, tho I could smell the slightly garlic breastmilk some days, I figured must have been some nice variety for ds!

[QTPie]

Peppermint tea does wonders for post-CS wind. Just careful if you also take arnica - the peppermint makes the arnica less effective.

[metalelephant]

Highlander, it made me smile to read your request for evidence, felt like I was in court a bit.
If you mean to point you at research, I can't do that as my opinion is formed by my own personal experience, those of my friends and relatives as well as my paediatrician's views.

As others have said, not all foods affect all babies, lots of babies have bad reactions to the mother having dairy, mine had no problem with that but reacted badly to broccoli and onion. Despite this, broccoli is now my 3 year old DS's favourite food!