Does what we eat REALLY affect baby???.....

[horsygirl]

My LO has really bad wind - has had since birth (he's 4 weeks)

I'm getting really pissed off with racking my brains over what i am eating that may be the cause.

Some websites say it makes no difference at all what you eat, others disagree.

Any evidence, anectodal or otherwise, please!!!

xx

I will point mommalove over here. Her dts had very poorly tummys until she changed her diet, and now the difference is amazing.

Oh God, I went through this whole thing with my DS. Nightmare, isn't it? It makes your brain hurt. however, I found that when I cut out dairy (apart from a smidge of milk in my tea...hey, I can't be a saint!) my DS seemed much happier and more comfortable. He had reflux and really bad wind and me eating dairy really seemed to make it worse.
Hope this helps!
x

my dd was very colicky, ie she screamed A LOT for the first four months....she was exclusively breast fed so i spent loads of time thinking about my diet and I can honestly say it made no difference....i ate virtually no dairy, no spices, no caffeine, etc. this might be helpful.....i spent loads of time looking for evidence to back up what it appears is basically anecdotal and i found this..www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/gassybaby.html Hope it helps.

I think some baby's will be affected by what their mums eat and some won't. It is a case of trial and error imho.

I never noticed anything that effected my breastmilk. DD1 was very collicky and like countryhousehotel I cut out caffiene and watched my diet. it made no difference. I didn't cut anything out for dd2 and she was a very easy baby.

DS1 was definitely affected by my diet. One evening we had a curry - and his colic was so bad I had to call out the doctor. She is Indian and said to me "even I don't eat curry when I'm breastfeeding!"

He definitely didn't appreciate it if I ate anything with garlic.

DS1 was very very sensitive to curry, beans or peas. He would scream for hours, and be impossible to settle. Luckily, it was quite obvious that these were the causes, so I cut them out. Grapes also gave him a runny tummy.

DS2 had horrific reflux, but it didn't seem to influenced by what I ate, so I ate everything as normal. Curry etc didn't cause him any particular problems.

As DS1 got older, and started food himself, what I ate was less of an issue (thank goodness as I fed him until 22m!)

IME dairy and chocolate (probably the caffeine in it) were the triggers for extremely bad colic with my DD and green poo / lots of wind for my DS. DS was a much less colicky baby than DD.

I think it varies a lot between babies - some are sensitive and some are not and for some sensitivity decreases as they get older.

Good luck and congrats on your little boy.

Thank you everyone!ok - is there any food that is considered 'safe'? If so I'll happily live off it!!!

The only time I noticed any effect on the baby from my diet when I was bf, was when I had a small glass on brandy one evening. The next day I could smell it in the nappy so I didn't do that again. Mostly I ate whatever I liked and did not drink alcohol. I did not avoid caffeine particularly, but I ate well - plenty of fresh fruit and veg, whole grains and protein.

I ate a normal diet, love my curry as does Tink and we could see that before birth, drank alcohol etc never had any problems with her.

Often it is a sign that they want to be held more, in slinging cultures there isn't a problem with colic. I'm not suggesting that you sling 24 hours a day, but you may find the occasional walk in a sling, especially when he's really upset may help.

TinkerbellesMum, Interested to hear about the lack of colic in sling cultures, do you have any studies backing that up ?

Certainly I found my DD would not cry as much in the sling but I still spend many hours walking up and down the street with her slung and crying in the evening and yes, I nursed her on demand as well. I assumed it was colic, she was rarely put down and we co-slept but I still had some crying in the evening.

Not to hand. My BF MW has spoken about it, they're very AP at that group and my paediatrition commented on it. I've never bookmarked the links I've seen on it, I need to start doing that and stop thinking I'll remember it next time.

There's supposed to be something in the movements of walking that helps settle them and causes them to cry less IIRC.

The MW comments a lot on the problems we have in our culture that aren't even considered in others, like wind.

I will have a look and see what I can find.

Thanks I would be interested in any links

I basically had the same experience as Mommafeelgood.

My DS screamed a lot while feeding, I tried cutting out dairy which seemed to help a lot. We had him tested and he was also allergic to eggs. Cutting both of these out completely solved his feeding problems.

I found this study: Pediatrics. 1991 May;87(5):623-30. I haven't found a full copy of it, just quotes and references to it.

I googled "colic sling" (no quotes) and it came up with a lot of references to slings being good for colic and crying, there were some references to what I said, but nothing that you might call proof.