'eat sweet things': evidence-based or myth?

[ardenbird]

I'm on iron for anaemia and I was told by the hospital's BF coordinator that I should eat sweet things to counteract the metallic taste of the iron in my breast milk. This, she said, would help with DD's habit of chewing/gumming her gape instead of just opening her mouth and leaving it open.

With such an instruction, I enthusiastically complied, and it appeared to work. DD seemed to chew less. But as time goes on, I wonder - it doesn't always appear effective (DD still does the chewing motion a lot), and I wonder about things like how long post-sweet thing does it take for the taste to get into my breast milk? Can DD smell the difference, or does she need to have a feed of sweet milk before being willing to leave her mouth open? I can't correlate her still gape vs chewing to taking iron/eating sweets with any consistency.

I'm also suspicious because the same woman has now said several things I know are incorrect. So, is she right here, or is this another myth?

ardenbird, I have never heard of this, and don't understand how it could possibly be true.

Flavours do get into the breastmilk - certain ones more than others, so vanilla and garlic do, for example.

But sweetness is not a flavour and instead (dredging up my limited knowledge of food chemistry here) is the result of carbohydrates reacting with the saliva in the mouth, and stimulating specific taste buds. By the time it's got through the mother's digestive system and into the bloodstream and then into the milk, I can't think there will be any 'untreated' carbohydrate to affect the sweetness of the breastmilk taste, let alone actually raise it so it is noticeably higher than before. Breastmilk is naturally sweet because of the lactose in it - milk sugar. This is a carbohydrate and the baby experiences it as sweet. But lactose is unaffected by the mother's diet.

I'd also be very sceptical that your baby's habit of gumming was in reaction to any metallic taste of the breastmilk - would iron tabs leading to a metallic taste really stop a healthy baby from gaping????

So if it was me, I'd be very sceptical, too, especially if this woman has form!

Following up - if it is correct that iron tabs for you make the milk off-putting for the baby, then better advice would be to eat something strongly-flavoured, with lots of garlic and/or (probably 'or' rather than 'and' :) ) vanilla in it.

Thanks tiktok! And :o at vanilla and garlic.

I suppose I can eat some strongly flavoured things to see if that helps. Otherwise, what else could be this gumming thing? It's quite maddening as it is very hard to latch her on (I'm pretty sure she has Dr. Kotlow's type 3 lip-tie and I'm wondering about posterior tongue tie - could these be related?)

It's very frustrating to get inaccurate advice from the local experts - I guess I'm going to have to double check everything. (Early on I wasted a bunch of time trying to wind a hungry baby as I was told the 'blue tinge' thing. I started to wonder how long it took for the colour to return and internet search revealed absolutely no medical articles but message board threads refuting it - including from you, tiktok!)

So did super-duper expert talk about blue tinge = wind???

That would be enough to put me off listening to anything she said, to be honest :)

Wouldn't know about the gumming thing - would have to see her doing it.

Is it affecting her bf, or making you sore?

That wasn't from her, although I did get it from three separate people: one in the hospital who I think may have been her "second" (the other person in the breastfeeding clinic; my memory of that time is rather foggy), a house-visiting breastfeeding helper, and a midwife.

The one thing she said that I know is counterfactual is when I pointed out DD's (probable) lip-tie and mentioned it causing a gap between the front teeth, she said that was good as it prevented tooth decay. However, all the dental literature I've read said such gaps cause tooth decay due to trapped food, and is a particular problem in breastfed babies!

The most recent directive I'm now questioning is to start DD on one breast for a few minutes, then move to other and finish on that in order to get the most hindmilk. I think the theory behind this is to start DD on one breast in order to stimulate my milk supply, but don't leave her there long, and then keep her on the other breast for as long as she's still hungry to get as much hindmilk as possible. But I'm not sure how this accomplishes this; it makes DD really upset to move her from the first breast, and then she gets very agitated at the end (I suppose as milk is flowing slower). Wouldn't she got lots of hindmilk if I did it the normal way and wait until DD was upset at slow flow and then let her feed off the other breast as much as she wanted again, perhaps also getting to hindmilk there? It makes her so upset to switch from the first breast that I'm not sure I can keep this up even if it does work...

Yes of course ardenbird your way of doing it is much better. Besides the whole foremilk/hindmilk is a bit overstated IMO. Is she consistently having green nappies + other signs that she's not getting the hindmilk (other than the slow weight gain which is probably just DD following her own centiile)? If the answer is no I can't see how what she suggested would help.

Yes, your way is perfectly fine. Babies who are upset and annoyed at being moved may not feed as effectively, anyway. Sounds like these people are not happy unless they are trying different ways to 'fix' something.

Agree that foremilk/hindmilk is overstated. It's rarely an issue.

I tried going back to the normal way of nursing last night, and it worked much better - a lot less coming off and crying and such. A little less gumming, too - maybe she does that when frustrated? It makes getting a good latch hard, as she has often closed her mouth some by the time I get it to the breast.

One thing you can try regarding the issue of not opening mouth very wide is let her find the breast/nipple rather than bringing breast to her mouth. For some reason if they're actively looking for it, rather than passively receiving it, they instinctively open their mouths wider when they latch. Try and see if it helps.

Actually, now we're getting green watery poos for the first time. How long does it take for stuff to go through the system? I fed the 'strange' way from Mon evening to Thu afternoon, then went back to normal. First green poo Thu night, normal poos Fri am-midday (although some maybe had a greenish tinge), and now a green poo again (Fri early afternoon).

It seems too fast for my return to normal to be causing the green poos? The first one was right after/during the first normal feed. I'm wondering if the strange fix-what-isn't-broken method caused too much foremilk? But then Mon to Thu evening seems too long for transit - isn't it something like 24hrs from mouth to out in healthy fibre-eating adults? But no idea if that holds for babies!

ardenbird I woudn't get too hung up about it. It's only one green poo right? It could be just a coincidence.
The occasional green poo is not a reason for concern. Lots of green poos may be an indication of a nutritional problem if also accompanied by slow weight gain. But let's not jump the gun!