How much of what you eat affects your breastmilk?

[WinkyWinkola]

Just had MIL here this weekend. She'd been visiting her cousin's grandson. He cried all evening apparently because the mother was eating spicy food. This automatic blaming of the mother got my goat and I did snap that some babies actually do have colic at that time of day. It just reminded me of when I was a new mum and the constant digs at me!

But, can some foods come through the BM and affect or upset the baby?

From what I remember if you have a colicky baby it's recommended you avoid foods that produce wind like beans and broccoli. I have a friend who's dd was dairy intolerant so she (my friend) had to have a dairy free diet when she was bfing. I guess quite a bit comes through, but if it's not causing a problem or there's no proof that what you're eating is causing a problem then why change. I didn't change my diet at all when I was bfing.

I keep meaning to ask the same questions winky - I have a 3.5 week old dd and the first week had a curry and she seemed quite unsettled by it so have avoided spicy food since but it could just have been newborn unsettled-ness.

Also, interested in caffiene and alcohol effects as have been limiting consumption and would like more .

I believe some babies can be sensitive to some things their mothers eat: eg babies who are allergic to cows milk protein.

However, I also think in our mothers' day this was held to be far more common than it actually is. My mum swears she couldn't eat oranges (and therefore I shouldn't either - I did, no effect on ds) and my gran told me not to eat cucumber (I did, no effect).

Colic makes people willing to try anything and if cutting something out of your diet works, or seems to work, then you'd do it. I don't think it's anything like a hard and fast rule for breastfed babies though. I can't think of anything I ate or drank that seemed to change ds's behaviour in any way.

I BF both of mine, my ds was very sensitive to my diet, my dd wasn't.

I had a glass of coke when my ds (my first) was 3 weeks old, and he was up until the next morning.
After I had something intensly tomatoe-y, he power barfed like crazy.
I couldn't have much dairy, as it gave him exzema

My dd didn't really seem to react to anything though. Depends on the child I think...

There is virtually no good evidence for telling mothers to avoid certain foods - women are on different diets all over the world, after all, and your baby does get used to your usual diet through the amniotic fluid in pregnancy. Having said that, individual experience does seem to vary a lot, and as shona says, if you think your baby is distressed you'll start thinking anything might be causing it.

My HV said to avoid garlic - it seems to work but might be coincidence.

Been reading up about this myself recently as DS not happy at times and pretty sure it's his digestive system to blame.

I've never shied away from spicy foods either now, breastfeeding or during pregnancy. However, my DP on chatting to lady in grocers when buying Scotch Bonnet chillis (yes, he's a chilli fiend) was told to avoid spicy food when I'm breastfeeding. My response was "well Asian ladies must eat chillis a lot of the time". His response - she was Asian.

So I'm off the chillis for a couple of weeks to see if it helps......