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If you are a breastfeeding mom, you have probably had a concern about what is good for you to consume while breastfeeding. You search the blogs, Pinterest and Google looking for answers but there are so many, who can you trust? No spicy foods, no cold foods, avoid onions and garlic. Oh and by all means, don’t you dare put an alcoholic drink in your mouth if you are breastfeeding!
Stress and unrealistic expectations are put on mothers, especially when it comes to breastfeeding. Our favorite saying applies to this topic: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it so it is.” There is no research that states any of the above restrictions are true. In fact, we support moms to eat whatever they want and have that drink, if they need it! However, if you believe that eating cheeseburgers, processed foods and tons of sugar are the best ways to optimize your health, we may encourage you to think otherwise. It is best to take care of yourself and eat a healthy diet. By doing this, you more than likely won’t have a baby who is sensitive to foods. This stands true for most cases, anyway. We only suggest limitations if the baby is symptomatic and shows symptoms. Signs and symptoms of food sensitivities in baby can include: increased spitting up, gassiness, fussiness, green, bloody or slimy/mucous stools, or even a body rash (it is very rare for baby to get a severe reaction from the foods in mom’s diet). According to the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, if there are symptoms, only then do we encourage the breastfeeding mother to do an elimination diet- starting with ONE FOOD item at a time- that being cow milk products (yes- cheese has to go!), as it is the most common allergen/sensitivity in humans. Some other common triggers can include: soy, wheat, corn, and nuts. We encourage the single food to be eliminated for a minimum of 2 weeks and up to 4 weeks in order to see it clear from baby’s system. It can take 72-96 hours to notice a change if said food item is a trigger
(ABM- https://abm.memberclicks.net/assets/DOCUMENTS/PROTOCOLS/24-allergic-proctocolitis-protocol-english.pdf).
So why is it that some babies are sensitive to foods and some are not? We don’t exactly know, but we believe the source of the problem does come back to mom. If baby is sensitive to it then it’s likely that mom is sensitive to it as well. Maternal inflammation can transfer over to the baby. We believe that when we “heal the mom, we heal the baby.” Jennifer Tow, IBCLC coined and actually published information on this topic in 2014 “Heal the mother, heal the baby: epigenetics, breastfeeding and the human microbiome.”
We have opened a can of worms that is difficult to summarize in this article. In short, this means: we help support mom with eliminating the triggers and improve her gut health and we heal the baby. The healthier we are (and healthier we eat), the healthier our babies and even our milk is!
