What NOT to eat when you're breastfeeding??

[tinyfeet]

I've just read something that said that there are a number of foods/drinks which you should not eat when you are breastfeeding because it will likely cause your baby to be irritable or colicky. On the list: chocolate, coffee, garlic, spicy foods, all dairy products- especially milk, citrus fruits and juices. These are all the foods that I love to eat. Do I really need to follow this advice? Can someone please comment? TIA

yes I think so marsup

when I had Ds1 me and friends used to have pate parties - to make up for all the deprivation we'd endured!

I'm just coming up to the end of b/f my third. I have never cut out any food and have never had any reaction. Overdid it a bit on alcohol with ds1 and he had terrible wind the next day (an experience I have made sure I didn't repeat!), but no problems with food. Cut out peanuts/soft & blue cheese in pregnancy but started again after birth. They all love stilton soup now!

If there's something you're a bit concerned about eating then maybe just have a little and monitor reactions, otherwise eat on! Good luck.

I ate everything ( in large amounts ) except garlic - DS1 hated the taste of my milk when I'd eaten anything with garlic and would actually turn up his nose at it! Fussy little blighter!

Mine seemed fussier after I had caffeine; everything else was ok.

Thanks, all. Great to hear - sounds like overwhelmingly everything is ok except alcohol and (unfortunately for me) caffeine, and possibly garlic. The 'breastfeeding guide' that I read sounded very scientific - about some chemical that exists in chocolate that is sure to make baby fussy. I'll try to monitor the reactions, but there's always the question of when - how many hours after mum has eaten or drank something - that baby will have reaction?

Don't deprive yourself of a drink. A glass of good red is a lovely accompaniment to the 7pm feed

Call me crazy, but my morning coffee is more important to me than an evening red

Very sensible conclusion Tinyfeet
I hope you are absorbing the chief message:
Get comfy
Whip out breast
Pick up Baby
Call for red wine
Reach out free hand in to large bag of Thorntons chocolates

Hi ...how much alcohol is deemed ok to take when B/F ? I ahve been out a couple of times, gotten drunk and expressed the milk , which has a blue hint to it . I don;t express if i have had a couple of glasses, but if I am pissed then I think that I shld express ? Any advice ?

There's a lot about alcohol on these boards, if you do a search, cords. I have posted chapter and verse about quantity, and I think you will find it reassuring. Personally, I think expressing, even when pissed, is not necessary unless you have a tiny newborn or prem, with whom you would need to be more careful. But some people don't want any alcohol at all in their milk, even a slight trace, and they would obviously express or nort drink.

Expressed milk does often have a bluish tinge. I don't know why alcohol would affect the colour, but I suppose it's possible.

Don't you think the blue tinge might be because you have been out and missed a feed so your breasts are fuller and so there is more foremilk which is thinner and more translucent than when you have more hindmilk which is yellower and more dense? I know that whenever I missed a feed and expressed I got lots of 'blue' milk. Alcohol never affected the colour, density or acceptability of my milk!

smelly cheeses no probs - peanuts you might want to be acreful of if there's a history of allergies in the family. I think that's right but if not I'm sure someone will coreect me!

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Thought you could eat anything so long as it was food?

Cheese was the main culprit for colic with me. That and garlic, cabbage and onion are given a miss to. These used to be a main part of my diet before, so with going without these I feel a glass of wine is only fair!

The only thing you should really avoid are peanuts at the risk of sensitising you baby to nuts and therefore more risk of nut allregies.
various other foods might disagree with your baby but this varies from baby to baby

Boo.....there is no 'should not' with nuts. This advice only applies to families where a first-degree relative has a known nut allergy.

tiktok, can I ask you then if I having been doing the right thing avoiding peanuts as my father and sister have peanut allergies...or should it only be relevant if I or DH have a peanut allergy?
Thanks!

Is it only if a near relative has a nut allergy that peanuts should be avoided, or is it if close relatives are generally allergic types (eg asthma/eczema etc)?

I'm really missing peanut butter ...

www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/factsheets/misc/peanut_allergy/

has info about this....but note it is inconclusive. The data on nut allergy and its transmission is not very good. If you do a PubMed search you'll find papers which contradict each other - some which link an elevated risk of peanut allergy to atopy (eczema, asthma) in mother or father, and some which find no evidence at all of a pregnancy transmission, or bf transmission, but sensitisation through application of peanut-based oils to the skin, or soya formula. If you haven't avoided nuts in pg, though, then it's really not worthwhile starting afterwards in bf, from the evidence available, though.

Thanks tiktok, I did avoid nuts when pregnant as well. I think I will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, though I know its no guarantee.

I do miss peanut M&Ms

We don't have nut allergies in our families - am I supposed to be avoiding nuts? I have been eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for the last couple of weeks and am 40 wks pg.

I had my fourth baby in august 03. I breastfed my first child until 6mths, second until 7 wks, third until 11 1/2 mths and I am still breastfeeding my fourth nearly 5 mnths on. I personally have found that coffee and tea make babies hyper, presumably because of the caffeine content, chocolate also has a similar affect. Like us, every baby is different. I have found that my babies tend to tolerate more of the things that I ate and drank whilst pregnant For instance, I use a lot of spices in my cooking. When pregnant with my eldest child, I hardly ate anything spicy, now she isn't keen on spicy foods 9 years on. I ate spices whilst pregnant with my 2nd and 3rd and they love spicy food the hotter the better. As far as fruit is concerned, I have found that in very small quantities it is ok otherwise you have to deal with even more runnier poo than you already have to deal with. Dairy products I had no problems with when I breastfed my first 3 children, but since I started eating yoghurt again after having my last baby, she ended up with dry eczema (I'm not sure if there is any connection)

At the end of the day, if you ate/drank them whilst pregnant, then in small quantities they should be ok although with me, I cannot eat grapes whilst breastfeeding at all otherwise my babies get loose motions and I have to watch how many bananas I eat for the same reasons. Hope my experiences help

Hi all, for some reason I started at the wrong end of the messages. my prev message was in relation to the first post,sorry. For info, I am asthmatic, have avoided peanuts and tried to avoid other nuts whilst pregnant and only avoided peanuts whilst breastfeeding (close relatives also have eczema) should I be avoiding all nuts? I tried alcohol whilst breastfeeding first baby, but felt guilty afterwards, so have avoided it whilst breastfeeding other children which means considering I got pregnant with my 4th whilst breastfeeding my 3rd, I haven't had a drink in ages will probably keel over after first drink drunk when I'v finished breastfeeding this time round

Hi all, for some reason I started at the wrong end of the messages. my prev message was in relation to the first post,sorry. For info, I am asthmatic, have avoided peanuts and tried to avoid other nuts whilst pregnant and only avoided peanuts whilst breastfeeding (close relatives also have eczema) should I be avoiding all nuts? I tried alcohol whilst breastfeeding first baby, but felt guilty afterwards, so have avoided it whilst breastfeeding other children which means considering I got pregnant with my 4th whilst breastfeeding my 3rd, I haven't had a drink in ages will probably keel over after first drink drunk when I'v finished breastfeeding this time round