(man this board is slooooow, now I remember one of the reasons I left )

The CIO thread sort of went off on an interesting tangent and I thought it might make a good discussion... Maybe I'm just really stupid on this topic (or uninformed might be a better word).

I thought the jury was OUT on how impactful the mother's diet was to a breastfed baby. I've read experts who say that the impact is WAY overstated and that mothers should not have to modify their diets in any way. That women in other countries don't do any diet modification and all that.

Then again, I've also read about the elimination diet (when babies are fussy) and that foods that cause allergies should be avoided and all that too.

Is there ANY scientific proof or evidence that one or the other of these is correct?

One of my concerns is this-- we (collectively, 'cause I sure did it too) are so quick to blame our milk supply. I think this - for some people - causes a premature ending of a nursing relationship because a mother is blaming her breastmilk for the fussiness or eczema or whatever and so she reaches, in desparation, for formula thinking it might solve the problem. When it doesn't, there is generally no turning back.

Are we SURE that what we eat has an impact? Is that PROVEN? If it's not proven, then are we propegating information that is harmful to the advocacy of breastfeeding?

I truly don't know the answers. But if there is no proof, then I'd hate to continue to propegate false information (unless the lack of proof is simply for lack of the whole topic having been studied, then I suppose the 'answer' is up in the air).

Does your mother-instinct tell you that your diet absolutely has an impact on the baby's behavior?

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Linda
Mom to Katie (22), Amber (20), Sarah (9), Jadyn (3), and Raena (1)



Click HERE to see my SBB Digital Scrapbooking Gallery!

By slow, I meant PERFORMANCE... waiting for the page to load and all that. I get so freaking impatient.

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Linda
Mom to Katie (22), Amber (20), Sarah (9), Jadyn (3), and Raena (1)



Click HERE to see my SBB Digital Scrapbooking Gallery!

My mother instinct told me that it didn't. But I did go on the elimination diet anyway, because her colic was SO extreme. I just, emotionally, had to do everything I could. But ultimately I don't think my diet had anything to do with her colic. She's never shown any kind of food sensitivity, and there wasn't even a blip on the radar screen when I reintroduced all the spicy, cruciferous, caffeinated stuff.

THAT SAID, I have no doubt there are infants who *are* affected by, or have reactions to, what mom eats. If medication/alcohol/etc. can affect a breastfeeding baby, well then it stands to reason that any allergen could too. I do think the elimination diet is worth trying if you're dealing with fussiness or colic, but I don't think that any BF mom should be told prescriptively to stay away from a whole list of otherwise harmless food items. I do agree that to do so could effectively dissuade someone from nursing, or encourage them to wean early.

I actually had people tell me that I had to continue to stay away from soft cheese, cold cuts, and sushi while nursing! Luckily I paid no attention. In fact, wasabi-free sushi was a staple during my elimination diet.

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Jessica 34
DH 42
Darling Niece 14
Big girl S. born August 28, 2003
Expecting in January 2007!

Well there is proof with some babies. Some babies have allergic reactions to what is in their mothers milk that disappear when the mother cuts those foods out of their diets. However many of the foods that Alex became allergic to, I ate all the time when I was breastfeeding with him and he was never colicky nor did he ever show a reaction to them until he was given them as regular food. From a few LCs I've talked to, I've been told this is common. You just never know.

It is very normal for babies to have fussy times even for formula fed babies. We talked about this on our DiD board. It seemed that the majority of the babies, including FF ones, had evening fuss times. There is a point that it moves from fussiness to colic. I tried for a long time to ignore the fact that Teagan had colic. She did have the normal evening fuss times and it started to get worse and longer and yes I did notice a difference in how she acted in response to my diet.

I really do not think this is unsurprising. We know that things pass through our breastmilk to our babies. We know that babies respond to the caffeine in our milk (though this is different from baby to baby) but it does pass on. We know that they respond to nicotine and alcohol. We also know that BM taste different depending on what women eat. So to me it just makes logical sense that yes what we eat could affect them.

I do think that there are women who take it to extremes though. I think that they are getting information from "old sources" My MIL all the time tells me I should not eat garlic or broccoli or cabbage or beans or pretty much anything! She tells me she mainly ate unseasoned meats and jello. I've heard women on the boards who do pretty much the same thing and yes many of them end their nursing relationships early because they get tired of it. I do think they are taking it too far but I have no proof of that.

I tend to think there is a lot of ignorance on BF. My best friend had her baby on the 5th and much to my amazement she decided to try BF (she had been extremely anti breastfeeding). She was amazed at how easy it was. She had been told so many horror stories by her mother and her sisters that she never thought she could do it. She thought she would have to give up everything! A lot of the things that she had been told were wrong or were just myths. I'm really happy for her that it worked out.

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Snowy days!



Jennifer (37) & Chris (41)
Alex 3.5
Teagan 1

I agree with this. I dont really change my diet for bf'ing (well I am doing Weight Watchers right now but not anything to do with bf'ing.) LOL If I was eating pure crap then I would have but I eat pretty decent to begin with. LOL And I dont smoke or anything. I do have an occasional 2 oz glass of wine (I know it's 2 oz cause I measure it because I have to count points! LOL) I do have a cup of coffee a day too. I've never had any supply issues though with either kids. I've always had too MUCH milk. LOL

If I noticed my baby acted fussy/gassy/etc after a certain food I'd certainly avoid it though.

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I think it can be true for some babies. We've never had a real problem. In the beginning, she got pretty fussy from orange juice, but I did drink a lot of it. I had craved it my entire pregnancy, but it never stayed down. Then when my dh made the first trip after she was born to the grocery store I requested some. I then drank the entire gallon in one day. Other than that, I eat and drink whatever.

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I didn't modify my diet at all. My babies so far have not had any reactions to anything I have eaten, so I have no personal experience with this. I do think there are babies who are effected, but I also think some people go way overboard with their precautions in babies who do not warrant it.

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I think that it's one of the first things that gets jumped on in the case of when a baby is colicky. People try everything they can to try to get to the root of the problem, and then it just goes away.

Leah was breastfed/pumped for for 11 weeks until we had to switch to formula. She had all-day-colic from 6 weeks old until 5 months old. Therefore, in her case, I don't think her problem was anything to do with what I had eaten, because she was exactly the same whether she had breastmilk or formula.

I don't doubt that it may be true for some babies, but I just don't think it's a hard and fast rule. Maybe it works differently for the occassionally "fussy" babies compared to "colicky" babies-I'm not sure.