Could eating too much chili pepper affect BF baby?

[Hangingbellyofbabylon]

dd is 3 weeks old and for the last few days I've been a bit obsessed with chili pepper - trying to cut down on salt so have been adding chili to make up for it but am a bit of a chili feind so may have gone a little over-board . Last few days dd has been really windy and crying in pain at times, is it the chili or do I have a vague memory that colic often kicks in at around 3 weeks?

Could be colic but more likely to be the chili. DD was affected by onion, I found out when she was 2 weeks old and we went out for our first restaurant meal in weeks. I had a blooming onion (whole onion deep fried in batter), got home, BF, and she was miserable the whole next day. Trial and error showed it was definitely the onion; I had to more or less cut onion out completely till she was over 6 months old.

Cut out the chili for a couple days; if she settles, try eating it again and see what happens. I sort of hope for your sake it is the chili; colicky babies are Not Fun!

thanks, I think I will try to cut out the chili as I really over did it tonight and even I'm suffering as well

Unfortunately, chilli is one of the few foods that has the exact same effect on baby as it does on you! The effect is very easily transferred in the breastmilk, and as Hangingbellyofbabylon has said - a whole day of being miserable is quite likely

I incorporate a lot of chilli into my cooking throughout pregnancy and bf-ing - proper bird's eye chillis. It is just my normal diet. I have not noticed any connection between my diet and dcs' moods.

In countries that eat a lot of chilli and spices, I don't think there is any concern with things passing in the milk.

Oh God remember the first night I brought ds home, had steak and fried onions after pukey hospital food. He was up all night crying with wind and the runs Am still avoiding any similar food in case of a repeat!

I have never heard that chilli is any more likely to be a culprit than any other food...it's one of these things that is prob very individual.

Is it really very easily transferred to the milk, mummy369? I have never heard this. Most foods are fine when bf - they're eaten by bf women all over the world, too

My DD was affected by onions and she had reflux. (She had reflux without vomiting till about 5-6 weeks)

tiktok, i'd heard about chilli easily transferring to milk, but also heard that it's one of those flavours that can be passed to unborn babies through the amniotic fluid. So perhaps if you regularly eat chilli during pregnancy so your baby is used to it maybe it has less affect postnatally?

Flavours do get into the milk, but I think it's not the flavour of chilli that causes gassy symptoms in adults (as far as I recall) but some other chemical.

Every food gets blamed for causing wind in babies at some time or another.

I would really like to see some decent evidence of this with chilli - not just individual personal experiences - that is a particular culprit

Yes - there is some evidence that babies get used to foods via the amniotic fluid.