Effect of mother's diet on breastfed baby's behaviour

[herosmother]

I am a student bf counsellor and I am interested to find as many personal experiences as possible about the effects different foods/drinks taken by the mother have on their baby's behaviour. I would also like to know how long after the food was eaten the effect on the baby was noticed. Was it quite soon after eating, later the same day or the next day? I know this isn't scientific, but your personal experiences would be much appreciated.

If she hasn't pooed for a good few days (6+) I drink orange juice (normally don't) and she poos within 3 hours.... If I eat dairy the next day she is a vomitting grumpy thing... that's all!

If I eat raw or lightly cooked onions, within 12 hours he has tummyache and farts like a trouper, and the other day I had broccoli for the first time in ages and he was the same with that too.

If I eat something spicy (curry or chilli) for dinner, then the next morning there is usually a ridiculous nappy explosion!

I have found that coke has meant baby not settled well later on

Apparently if you smoke it makes your breastmilk taste smoky but no personal experience of that

I eat anything I like and my baby seems the same. Either that or I just don't notice as we have a very loose routine going on.

I ate anything and everything and never noticed any effect on my 3. Much like YULEingFanjo I had no routine or schedule and just went with the flow.

I have never noticed any effects of what I have eaten on my baby. My mother warned me (endlessly) of how if I ate curry my DS would be badly affected. We eat a lot of curries and spicy food, so I started very gradually with very mild curries after he was born, but rapidly found that as he suffered no ill effects I could ratchet up the heat again. Perhaps not coincidentally, now at 16 months he loves spicy food himself!

I've never found anything affects it. Plus I restarted smoking while BFing (DS was 18 months old) and I didn't notice any difference in taste at all. (That doesn't actually make sense since the smoke doesn't get into the blood!) But then perhaps I didn't notice because I was a smoker

I think babies are just fussy at random times. Everything is new to them, it's bound to be a bit overwhelming. I think it's just in our nature to try and look for patterns, and see patterns even where there are none. It's a way of trying to regain some control over something which is largely uncontrollable.

The curry thing is nuts, because if spicy food affected breastmilk, what would happen in countries where they eat a lot of spicy food? What, the babies would constantly have upset tummies?

Well, exactly. I would imagine if you eat stuff which is drastically different to your normal diet it could possibly have an effect - and of course lots of people do report ill effects on their babies from eating curry. But if you eat the same sorts of foods regularly throughout pregnancy and into BFing then I imagine your baby gets used to it.

My DD had a terrible night after I had eaten crab and my family told me it was sure to be the reason. I wasn't so sure and now 12 months later I am absolutely convinced that it makes absolutely no difference what so ever.

I've never noticed any difference in 22 months of bf. I have tried food exclusion diets (dairy, soya, eggs, nuts) to see if any of those made a difference (to DS's eczema) and I didn't notice any change there.

My last daughter is milk protien intollerant which meant that any dairy I ate (no matter how little I ate) she would be vomiting none stop, dairy caused severe acid reflux/reflux, failure to gain weight and tummy cramps/explosive poo's and a rash. I had to go dairy free, completely dairy free, some babies are ok if thier mum just cuts out obvious dairy, I had to cut absolutely everything, even if I accidentally ate a couple of spoonfuls of chicken gravy made with granules was enough to make her ill for a week.

If I accidentally ate dairy it would affect her by the next day, the effects lasted from 3 days to a week depending on how much I had eaten. This problem is alot more common than GP's etc think and alot of women get fobbed off, I was fobbed off by the first GP that I saw despite dd3's reflux being severe.

When bfing my other kids I didn't notice anything that I ate that affected them.

From my experience, it only makes a difference when a baby is tiny, let's say up to 4 maybe 5 months. My DD did react to me having a Chinese take away- the most explosive, smelly, dark green, did I say smelly, poo ever. Agree with orange juice, also cranberry in our case. Cabbage, carrots, peas - let's just say I didn't have a lot of veg when DD was tiny. Now, wr both eat everything .

I had three food sensitive babies. Was less obvious with DC1 as I was less open to the possible impact of what I ate. I could smell food I ate on DC2 afterwards, particularly egg and spicy food. DC3 was intolerant to wheat, Dairy and sugar and when I cut these out his eczema, runny nose, bowels, sleep and demeanor improved significantly. He is also allergic to peanuts and in hindsight I can see that his instances of gagging coincided with me eating peanuts. I think my DCs are extreme examples but I wish someone had suggested I check sooner than I did.

Broccoli definitely had a rather windy effect on dd2, had to mostly avoid it. Caffeine in coffee and coke made her less inclined to sleep too, not hugely so, but I did notice it occasionally. She was the most amazingly relaxed baby though, so it really stood out when she was upset about anything!

I've never noticed any unusual behaviour and I eat spicy food, dairy, infact everything and DD is 15 months now. Never noticed anythign with my DS either.

I never noticed any effect. I know flavours can be transferred into milk but I suspect a lot of 'reactions' are probably coincidendal, and not really to do with the food the mother eats.

People don't often question how the diet of a cow affects the constitution of its milk. You know, "Mmmm, high content of thistles and dandelions always makes me burp..."

It's not hugely likely that there are many profound reactions to mothers milk given the infinite diversity of women's diets around the world.

(allergies excluded)

Never noticed anything with foods, but jings, ds2 slept brilliantly after I had taken tramadol!

Very - Actually a cows diet affects the nutrients and acidity of it's milk so not such a dumb question after all!!

I have never noticed any impact at all but my DS has no known food sensitivities. I did worry for a while that my chocolate consumption might mean he only loved sweet foods () but he seems to have embraced a healthy and varied diet so far....

My DS suffered from bad wind whenever I ate chocolate (particularly dark chocolate with a high cocoa content). It would affect him at the next feed (so 3 hours or so later). Once I cut it out he was much better. Weeks later I forgot and made a chocolate sauce with Green & Blacks cocoa powder and he screamed in pain for hours.

Another person who's never noticed a difference (booze, caffeine, curry, sprouts etc. - seemed the same baby no matter what).

Now at one and a bit he eats absolutely anything (up to and including curry - as long as not a hot one).. although we do notice quite a digestive effect after a feast of brassicas.

Never noticed any difference here either. There are a lot of old wives tales about garlic, onions, peppers, spicy food etc.

Who are you studying with, NCT?