Does what I eat and drink really effect my DD via my breastmilk?

[SydneyB]

I've always been a bit sceptical when people say 'oh, i ate loads of broccoli last night and that's why my DD/DS has wind today' but I just wondered if anyone knew what the real story was here? If I have a cup of coffee, will my DD be up all night? Does the odd glass of wine do any harm? Can't seem to get a consensus on this so would love some other MNetters thoughts. DD is nearly 12 weeks and the reason I ask is I had a very strong cappuccino this am and wonder if that's what sent DD's lunchtime nap up the spout or whether it was just one of those days!

Don't you think it just makes sense that what you eat/drink effects your breast milk???

Of course a certain amount of what you eat and drink will go into your milk - depending on the time you eat and drink it - but whether it will effect your baby dependson how sensitive your baby is to these things. With dd1, I couldn't bf after drinking coffee as her sleeping abilities where so variable. But it doesn't seem to effect DD2, who is a very different baby.

Sorry ScottishThistle, what I meant was how it effected your DD/DS...

I think that a tiny amount of caffeine gets through the milk, and ditto alcohol. Also peanuts and dairy. Do a search on Alcohol or caffeine and Tiktok's name - she's the real expert on such things! I tended to avoid caffeine because DS was also a v erratic sleeper but I found that alcohol didn't make him any sleepier than normal. But I'm pretty sure the broccoli thing is garbage!

Maternal diet affects the flavour of the breastmilk in a very subtle way, and some medications/drugs inc caffeine, alcohol, can get in in small amounts, but it is simply not true that everything you eat or drink gets into the breastmilk.

There are some case reports of women with colicky babies whose behaviour improved when they cut out the many cups of strong coffee they were having.

It's virtually impossible to link one dietary item to a change in behaviour, though.

If I eat chocolate then my ds2 is terribly unsettled over the next 24-36h, pooing constantly. I discovered it after having had a chocolate orgy. Now I never have more than one square, and that very rarely. I even avoid chocolate cakes and biscuits. I don't know how much I have to eat to cause this. Quite frankly, the result of my chocolate orgy (and a test I did a couple of weeks later with chocolate cake) were so unpleasant for both ds2 and me, that I don't want to find out his tolerance limit.