How Does Food Really Affect Your Breastmilk?

Do any of these sound familiar?

“You’re not eating beans are you?! That will give your baby horrible gas!”
“You can’t eat that candy cane, mint will cause your supply to dry up!”
“Are you sure you want coffee? That’s going to keep your baby up all night long!”
“Bell peppers gave my kids horrendous gas. You should avoid them at all costs!”

We’ve all been told well meaning advice about what we should and should not eat when breastfeeding. Everyone will tell you a food that you should avoid, everything from broccoli to chocolate! But how much do we really need to be concerned with what we are eating when we breastfeed? 

First, let’s get one thing straight. No matter what you are eating, your body will still produce the perfect breast milk for your baby. 

So why do people suggest avoiding specific foods? First off, gas. How many times does someone say something made their baby gassy. Just because a food makes you a little gassy does not mean it will do the same to your baby. Newborns digestive systems are still immature, hence the gas. Often times gas is worse overnight or early in the morning, which is why women often think something they ate the night before is the cause. In most cases it’s just normal newborn gas. Thrush, oversupply, and a strong letdown can also cause gas issues in newborns. Gas is also notorious for showing up during growth spurts which are plentiful in those first months! These are much more likely culprits than something you may have eaten the night before. (http://kellymom.com/parenting/parenting-faq/gassybaby/) 

Another thing people are told to avoid is coffee and/or caffeine. While yes, some babies can be sensitive to caffeine, most are just fine. From Dr. Hale it’s rated an L2 and found at low levels in breast milk. And just because your LO suddenly wakes up at night doesn’t mean it’s the coffee! Remember sleepless nights are a large part of the first year due to growth spurts, teething, and sleep regression. In fact caffeine peaks in your system 1 – 2 hours post drink so unless you are having a late night coffee binge its probably just a fluke! (http://kellymom.com/bf/can-i-breastfeed/lifestyle/caffeine/) 

And what about supply lowering foods? Moms are told often to avoid specific foods because they will cause supply to decrease. While some herbs can have a negative impact on milk supply, the amount needed to do so is therapeutic quantities. This means that eating mint flavored chocolate or adding oregano to your cooking isn’t going to affect your supply. (http://kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/herbs_to_avoid/) 

When IS it appropriate to change your diet for baby? When you notice excessive spitting up, consistent green and mucousy poops, bad “baby acne” or eczema, dry skin, colic and fussiness.
Cutting out large amount of veggies and fruits from the diet (ie, eating a “bland” diet of starches and meats) is actually one of the worst approaches to this problem. In many cases the culprit turns out to be a dairy/soy sensitivity. 

So what is the take away here? Babies have gas, its normal. The chances are if your baby is gassy it is NOT something you ate. Babies not sleeping at night is normal, it’s probably NOT due to caffeine. If you are worried about your baby showing signs of a food sensitivity, keep a food log to try and track down the offending food. Dairy, Soy, and Gluten are 3 big offenders. 

Happy Eating!

Alternative Milks

So your baby is approaching a year, the point past which you’ve been told it’s okay to start introducing cow’s milk or another alternative milk into your baby’s diet. Maybe you’ve been told you should wean at one year. You certainly don’t have to, and there are countless reasons to continue breastfeeding into the second year. But that’s a subject for another TOTD. Today, we talk about alternative milks.

As you may be aware, the World Health Organization recommends that this be the choices in milks for a mother to feed her infant. They are ranked in order of priority:
1. Breastmilk from the mother’s breast.
2. The mother’s breastmilk, which has been expressed and is then given to the baby in a syringe, bottle, or cup.
3. Expressed milk from another breastfeeding mother.
4. Commercial infant formula.

You may be wondering where other commercially-available alternative milks fall in this classification. If you’ve done your research on the contents of commercial infant formula, you may assume that cow’s milk, soy, almond, rice, coconut or other alternative milks fall somewhere between 3 and 4. Surely these milks are safer for babies and toddlers, right?

Unfortunately, this is simply not the case. If your child is under the age of one, and you have exhausted every attempt to provide your baby with breastmilk from your breasts or from other breastfeeding mother, formula is the WHO’s preferred alternative. You are not better off supplementing with an alternative milk. Any alternative milk, be it formula or almond milk, is going to fall significantly short of breastmilk, particularly in the child’s first two years of life. Let’s look at some of the fundamental complaints about infant formula:

• It is highly processed
• It is full of sweeteners and fillers to make it more drinkable
• It is heavily fortified beyond what the natural ingredients support
• Its nutritional content is deeply inferior to breastmilk

All of this can be said about almost any commercially-available alternative milk. The alternative milks that provide a composition similar to breastmilk are usually in the form of raw animal milks. However, these are usually expensive, unavailable in many parts of the country, and pose risks to infants and toddlers who have a milk protein allergy, which is a common problem. And, all the new alternative milks that are all the rage are really no better than formula. Some have protein but no fat, some have fat but no protein. Some have hardly any protein or fat or calcium.

That’s OK, you might be thinking. Apples don’t have a lot of fat or protein or calcium, either, but they’re part of a healthy diet. And that is true. If all you want is to pour a little coconut milk over your toddler’s cornflakes, you’re probably fine. Once a baby begins eating table foods in earnest (usually sometime after 12 months), the breastmilk vs formula debate becomes much more nuanced. The issue is quantity. If you ate an apple a day, you might be a very healthy person. But the healthiness of your apple consumption would change dramatically if half of your diet, day in and day out, consisted solely of apples.

When you are considering an alternate milk for your toddler so you can stop pumping or to simply have an alternative, aim to keep the supplementation at a minimum. None of the new alternate milks have nutrition adequate enough to make up half a toddler’s diet.