Breastfeeding and fizzy drinks

[naturopath]

I always thought / have been told that it is bad to drink "fizzy" drinks when breastfeeding, because (apart from the obvious general unhealthiness) the carbonation gets into the breastmilk and makes the baby windy. Is that really true??

(Please - no answers to the effect of general badness of these drinks - I'm aware of that - just interested in windy aspect) - thanks!

imaginewittynamehere said 'IMHO is all rubbish peddled by people who do not understand breastfeeding.'

it's not rubbish in my case and I do understand breastfeeding I should do by now, I've fed for over 5.5 years so far - dd1 13m, dd2 8m, dd3 22m,ds 24 months and counting

Maybe your babies weren't effected by anything you ate, but mine definately were, especially in the first few months when exclusively bfed.

I know (from personal experimentation!) with alcohol it's about 4 hours from me drinking it to making very sleepy milk. A glass of wine with dinner and I had a very sleepy baby that night.

I think it only really has that effect while the baby is still tiny though and not eating solids.

naturopath, that sounds like a very restrictive diet for you must be hard. Can you still eat dark chocolate?

I think the trouble is that people are given stupid blanket bans based on no evidence, like no soft fruit or mangoes or curry, none of which make the slightest difference to my DC. Whereas sometimes a mother will work out something like that for herself, based on her own baby's reactions, such as dairy for me (both my DC are dairy intolerant) and of course no one disputes that.

Naturopath, what effect did you have with salmon? The reason I ask is because I had salmon last night and DS2 was really bad with trapped wind and very unsettled. Much more than usual. I've never thought food had any impact at all, but now you have me wondering.

To be sure of a food or drink causing an effect in the baby we'd need to do a properly controlled experiment, preferably blinded (so you didn't know you were eating salmon or cabbage or whatever) , and then have a week when you didn't eat this thing (and didn't know you were not eating it!)...and then repeat the whole thing at least twice a few weeks later, keeping records of the baby's behaviour each time.

This is all a bit difficult

Instead, we guess - we eat X and then the baby is unsettled and so we link X to the unsettled behaviour. But as babies are unsettled for a zillion reasons, not always gut related either, it's absolutely a guess.

I never know how people can tell the baby has 'trapped wind', sorry - people say 'you can hear it inside' (but you put your ear to anyone's stomach and you can hear all sorts), or 'his tummy gets hard' (the tummy naturally gets hard with crying) or ' he burps and is better afterwards' (but babies burp, and their mood changes, and it may be unconnected).

Alcohol making babies sleepy? Not four hours after drinking - the alcohol is processed and is completely disappeared after 1- to 1.5 hours per unit...and the amount of alcohol needed to show behavioral change in babies (and this is based on experiments) is massive, and far more than a glass of wine. But I suppose individuals can have individual responses, so I am not saying you are wrong, becky

I would say that any effect of soft fruit on the baby's poo is total coincidence, though, sorry!

You are probably right tiktok, we look for explanations for our babies behaviour but it may not be a cause and effect thing. I don't fancy eating salmon every day for a week though to prove this one out!

With regards to the trapped wind, I made the assumption it was trapped wind because I had tried everything else that he may have been needing - feeding, cuddle, change nappy, change clothes, change of scenery,but nothing made him happy. He was screaming (which is pretty unusual for him), pulling up his legs and had v smelly wind. When I pumped his legs and he passed wind he calmed down straight away. So it seemed like the wind was the problem, but like you said, we will never really know for sure...

Well I have given up crisps and fizzy drinks myself.

Crisps made my milk crunchy and fizzy drinks made it, well, fizzy.

preggers -re salmon - the three times I have eaten salmon fishcakes (that my mum made) since ds was born, I seem to have had a bad day with him. Haven't been scientific enough to try with plain salmon. So it could be coincidence, the salmon, or another ingredient (eg onions). Really should test it.

Incidentally, I have noticed that when ds1 eats non-organic salmon he usually comes out in a rash, whereas with organic salmon he is fine. I wonder if it's related to what the fish are eating / chemicals in the water etc.?

foxy

I have diet pepsi just about every day, no problems with exclusively BF DS (5 mos) at all. I also have a big cup of coffee every morning.

Sure, he doesn't nap during the day, but he's slept through the night since 8-9 weeks, so I'm not complaining.

I was told to watch out for garlic and onions, but I don't cook without them!

v v bad evening here - semi-sure it's to do with what I ate today as seems to be digestion related (lots of screaming, burps, bringing milk up etc., itchiness around head and ears, kind of rash on parts of his body)..

can only think of: tomato sauce, cooked red cabbage (but I've eaten this before and I don't recall any reaction), or some e-numbers in a fizzy drink (yes, I know they're bad, but I've been having real cravings recently - usually don't drink them at all.. since the Sprite and Coke were ok, I guess i assumed others would be ... maybe not)..

oh, also had some pomegranate, and some mango.

I don't know much about allergies but you need to be careful perhaps you don't attribute symptoms of other illnesses down to what you have eaten. If he is having rashes etc, may be worth a trip to the doctor to get him checked over.

Hope you both have a better day today.