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Baby Gas Problems: Foods To Avoid While Breastfeeding

Baby Gas Problems: Foods To Avoid While Breastfeeding

As a breastfeeding mom, you know what an important role you play in the life of your baby. But If your baby is suffering from gas, you may be wondering if there is anything you can do to help them. Watching your baby deal with gas problems can be so hard! As a breastfeeding mom, are there foods to avoid to help ease this problem?

There are no specific foods to avoid while breastfeeding to help your baby avoid gas problems. New moms often believe that their diet can cause a gassy breastfed baby. However, only foods that pass into the bloodstream can get into breast milk. This means moms can eat most foods unless their baby has specific allergies to some products. Some doctors recommend eliminating gas producing foods from a mom’s diet to see if it has an effect on their baby. These foods include cruciferous vegetables and high fiber foods. 

In general, breastfeeding moms should eat a healthy and well-balanced diet. What benefits you as a mom will benefit your little one. If your baby is gassy and fussy, you’re probably wondering if it’s your diet causing the problem. To set your mind at rest, here’s everything you need to know about gassy babies and how to help them.

Foods To Avoid While Breastfeeding For Baby Gas Problems

It can be very distressing for a new mom to see her baby cry continuously, especially if you’ve covered all the typical causes like dirty diapers, hunger, discomfort, or an overdue nap. The chances are that it could be gas bothering your baby, and it can be very painful for them. 

As a new mom, you may not immediately pick up what is ailing your baby, so keep these tell-tale signs of a gassy baby in mind when they are fussing:

  • Burping
  • Excessive flatulence
  • Spitting up
  • Bloated abdomen
  • Arched back and pulling the legs up towards the abdomen

Which Foods Are Said To Cause Gas In Babies?

If you are a new mom who has decided to breastfeed your baby, many people may advise you to avoid or limit certain foods to prevent your baby from becoming gassy. These are some of the foods blamed for causing gas in babies:

  • Most fruits, including apricots, prunes, plums, peaches, pears, and citrus
  • Foods rich in fiber, especially those containing bran
  • Vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, asparagus, artichokes, garlic, and onions
  • Starches like pasta, corn, and potatoes
  • Dairy products
  • Chocolate
  • Beverages containing caffeine and carbonated drinks

Now, how much of this is true? What would be left to eat if you had to eliminate these specific foods from your diet to prevent your baby from becoming gassy? It’s quite common to hear moms talk of weaning their babies because they’re tired of depriving themselves of particular food and drinks. 

The good news is that there are very few foods you need to avoid while breastfeeding. If your baby has the same reaction every time you eat a specific food, consult with your pediatrician regarding removing that item from your diet for 2-4 weeks to confirm your suspicions. 

If your baby is not regularly bothered by gas, there’s no reason to avoid particular foods while breastfeeding. 

Most of the gassy foods listed above that new moms are warned against do not in fact cause gas in babies. The fiber in these gassy vegetables arrives in the large intestine intact, where natural bacteria break it down, producing gas. However, fiber and gas do not transfer to breast milk. While eating a lot of gassy vegetables may give you gas, your breast milk will remain unaffected, and your baby will not get gas this way. 

The same is true of the acidic and gassy fruits, as they will not alter the maternal plasma’s pH. This means you can and should eat a balanced diet rich in fruit and vegetables to keep yourself healthy.

Approximately 1% of the caffeine ingested by a breastfeeding mom gets transferred to breast milk, and only an excessive intake is likely to affect your baby. With that said, newborns and preemies whose digestive systems are still maturing may get gas from large doses of caffeine. 

As your baby develops, a daily intake of around 300 mg of caffeine should not affect your little one at all. The good news for coffee-loving moms like myself is that you need not avoid caffeine altogether while breastfeeding.

Which Foods Give Babies Gas? 

While the traditional “gassy foods” don’t usually make breastfed babies struggle with gas pain, some foods can affect them. 

A small percentage of infants suffer from allergies and sensitivities to food in the mother’s breast milk. Most often, cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA) is the culprit. If you eliminate all dairy products from your diet and your baby’s gas problems improve, you should avoid them until your baby is weaned. 

Of all exclusively breastfed babies, approximately only 3% are allergic or sensitive to dairy products in their mom’s breast milk. Signs that your child may be having an allergic reaction to dairy include:

  • Severe fussiness and crying
  • A swollen or tight belly, indicating abdominal pain
  • Blood or mucus in the stools
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Breathing difficulties
  • Rash, hives, or eczema

Not all babies will have severe reactions. Consult a pediatrician immediately if you believe your child is having a serious allergic reaction. Most will have a family history of such allergies. Otherwise, if your baby is simply fussier and gassier than usual, try eliminating dairy from your diet and see if the symptoms disappear. 

Aside from dairy products, some babies have sensitivities or allergies to soy, gluten, peanuts and tree nuts, eggs, citrus, and fish

Despite medical evidence negating the idea of gassy foods giving breastfed babies gas, many moms swear that their little ones get gassy every time they eat certain foods. It’s good to track this and keep a record of it to discuss with your pediatrician. Before eliminating the food unnecessarily, you can check if there is another underlying cause for your baby’s discomfort. 

Other Reasons For Babies Struggling With Gas

While breastfeeding moms quickly attribute their baby’s gas to their own diets, there are more realistic causes for their discomfort. Moms should remember that it’s normal for babies to have gas

At your baby’s first feeding after birth, their nourishment source shifts from the placenta to breast milk. That’s quite an adjustment to a still-developing digestive system. It takes some time to develop the gastrointestinal tract and create a microbiome (the body’s combination of minute organisms and healthy bacteria in the gut).

If you have a strong let-down reflex, your baby may be gulping to keep up with the flow, which often leads to your little one swallowing air. This is one of the most prevalent causes of baby gas. 

Difficulty in latching correctly can also lead to your baby gulping air and becoming gassy. 

When you introduce pumped breast milk from a bottle, the flow is different and usually faster, which may cause your baby to swallow air until they get used to the new vessel.

If your little one is constipated, they could have gas trapped in their system that they are struggling to release.

Even when your baby has been crying for a long time, it can cause them to swallow air. Air is often a bigger culprit than food when your baby is gassy!

How To Help Your Gassy Baby Feel Better

There’s a desperation that we feel when our babies cry continuously or are in pain. Our instinct is to do whatever it takes to help them. Fortunately, there are practical things you can do to make your baby feel better, and it does not include avoiding any foods while breastfeeding.

Tips For Helping A Gassy Baby

There are several effective strategies for helping your baby get rid of gas. The goal is to eliminate the air bubbles in your little one’s digestive tract and abdomen. The following tips may help your baby.

Burp your baby during and after feedings

Air bubbles often sneak when the baby gulps air during feeding and burping them halfway through may provide some relief. They may not appreciate the interruption, so if you plan to use this method, stay consistent and do it at every feeding. 

Some positions aid gas relief. When your baby is in your arms, turn your baby on their left side and rub their back. You can also place them on their back and do cycling movements with their legs. Gassy babies also sleep best on their backs. Placing them on their stomach for a little while can aid digestion and eliminate air bubbles, but your baby should always sleep on their back..

If you’re not getting much joy from the other remedies, you can see if baby gas drops will help. They contain anti foaming ingredients to help with bloating and gas pain. Although it is considered safe for babies, reading the insert for the correct dosage is essential. One can also never overemphasize the importance of consulting a doctor before administering any medication to your baby.

Maintain A Healthy Diet While Breastfeeding

While we’ve established that there is no list of foods to avoid while breastfeeding to prevent baby gas problems, there are a few foods that you should avoid or limit for other reasons:

  • Avoid fish with high mercury levels, such as king mackerel, bigeye tuna, marlin, shark, swordfish, and tilefish as mercury can affect your baby’s central nervous system.
  • There has not been enough research on herbal teas and supplements for breastfeeding women. They also don’t fall under the FDA, so it is possible that they could be contaminated with heavy metals. It’s best to avoid them to minimize any risks.
  • Excessive alcohol intake during breastfeeding can disrupt your baby’s sleep patterns and cause cognitive delays. You should limit alcohol to one standard drink daily and wait approximately three hours for the alcohol to leave your system before nursing your baby. “Pumping and dumping” does not remove alcohol from your breast milk. 

More than anything, a breastfeeding mom needs to maintain a healthy, balanced diet. You should listen to your body, eat when hungry, and drink water or other beverages when thirsty. 

There’s no need to eat or drink excessively to build up your milk supply, and certainly no need to starve yourself to lose any baby weight! Eating a wide range of nutritious foods will keep you healthy and better able to care for your baby. 

The Takeaway

There are no foods to avoid while breastfeeding to prevent giving your baby gas. That concept is largely an old wives’ tale. A gassy baby is normal, and usually, it is due to swallowing air. If you see a correlation between your gassy baby and a specific food, eliminate it for a while. But make sure you look after yourself by eating enough healthy foods while breastfeeding your little miracle.