I believe in breastfeeding. I think it’s a wonderful thing for both Mommy and baby, and when Baby J. was born it took us 8 weeks of sore nipples, thrush, painful latching, pumping bottles, and multiple threats of quitting before we finally figured it out. And, once we figured it all out and the pain subsided and the thrush went away, it was a wonderful experience. I threw away all the bottles, kept the pump on hand for just in case moments, stopped stocking the freezer with bags of milk, and enjoyed it.
But I don’t remember Baby J. having this much trouble with gripe and colic. I guess that’s the beauty of childbirth, there are just so many things you don’t remember. Like when you’re desperate to get pregnant again, you don’t remember the heartburn, constipation, back pain, peeing while you sneeze, etc. You remember the wonderful feeling of movement in your tummy and that fact that, hopefully 9 months later, you get to take home a beautiful baby.
But I did remember the 8 weeks of breastfeeding hell that I went through with Baby J. and decided to be prepared for Baby S.’s birth. I had a wonderful lactation consultant come to the hospital the day after she was born to help with proper latching, I went to the website HanakaTova and had Ariella come to the house armed with a breastfeeding pillow with back support, boxes of nursing pads, Lansinoh nursing creams, the Medella freestyle breast pump and a cape so that I can feed in public if need be. The cape is literally fodder for another blog post but it has really come in handy! I purchased a box of Simicol (for anti-gas) in advance and read up on proper breastfeeding holds. I had boxes of milk freezer bags and two bottles, all ready to be sterilized and used.
And miraculously, while nothing else about the birth really went as I’d hoped, little Baby S. latched right away. And the pain was manageable. And she started gaining weight and I thought we were in the clear! We had a bump in the road with thrush, but we caught it early and were both put on meds to clear it up.
Then, a few days ago, the colic and gas really started to settle in and since I’ve been giving the Simicol and the meds for thrush, I had to start looking at my diet. Only thing is that I have hardly been eating, so I was shocked that it was something I was ingesting. I did a quick Google search and found a number of websites that listed foods that could cause colic, fussiness and gas in newborns.
Here’s a common list:
Beans
Broccoli
Brussel sprouts
Cabbage
Caffeine
Cauliflower
Citrus fruits
Corn
Dairy products
Eggs
Hot peppers
Iron supplements
Medicines
Onions
Peanuts
Shellfish
Soy and tofu
Spicy foods
Tomato
Wheat
Umm, okay. So, what the heck can I eat? Add to this list my kosher restrictions and the fact that I’m trying to watch my weight so I can lose some of this excess pregnancy bulk, and we don’t have a whole lotta options folks.
I’ve since cut out dairy products, stopped taking my iron supplements (so yes, that is why I look very pale people. Please stop pointing it out to me when you see me on the street, nothing I can do if I don’t want a screaming baby on my hands), and won’t ever be able to pick up a salad since they all cut cabbage into them.
My Mom is pushing bottled formula but I won’t do it, I’d rather live off of rice and almond milk if necessary.
So my fellow breastfeeding Mommies, what DO you eat while breastfeeding?
Mrs Belogski says
I would stay away from large amounts of cabbage or grapes, but otherwise I have always eaten normally while breastfeeding. The only time one of our babies had a really bad reaction from something I ate was when I had large amounts of a spicy red dip at our first daughter’s kiddush, and she didn’t enjoy it as much as I did! There are plenty of people across the world eating beans, spices etc while nursing their babies – maybe it’s not all those gas producing foods, but she’s just got colic, which is “supposed” to go at 13 weeks.
Kate says
Keep in mind that cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts are all basically the same thing to your digestive system. Tomato + citrus = acid. Dairy is its own mess.
A lot of babies, I think, go through a weird adjustment period between 2 and 6 (or 8) weeks where their systems are trying to work out the kinks–remember it’s a whole bunch of new foods/chemicals/acids, as it were, all at once. Sometimes I think there just is no reason…I dimly recall my daughter screaming in the night from gas pains at a much older age than newborn, then of course needing to nurse to settle down.
I did try to cut out dairy from when she was maybe 2-4 weeks? or 3-5? Didn’t help, we just dealt with it.
If you find something specific that seems to make it worse, try to cut it out, but see if the tincture of time doesn’t solve this one a little bit. If she gets to one of those magical ages (6 or 8 weeks) when everything is SUPPOSED to get a little easier and you notice no change, then I’d get more investigative…into reflux or something like that.
Check kellymom.com for more specific advice.
Laura Cowan says
You know it might not be related to what you eat…my first was colicky and there was nothing that helped. Second didn’t like broccoli and third was typical third, fine with anything.
midlifesinglemum says
I know this is revolutionary but you could try making a salad rather than picking one up. Then you don’t have to put the cabbage in. As I said – revolutionary, but needs musts.
holylandhipstermom says
I could probably make my own salad, but then I could also spend that time doing work and getting paid enough money to buy enough salad for a month 🙂
Melissa says
Hey….I cut out all dairy and give Y mylicon when he needs it, did the same with T. I don’t eat a lot of veggies or beans anyway. I still drink caffeine. With T this all went away around 3.5 months. It’s said you should cut just one food at a time so you know what’s bothering baby (could be nothing you are eating, just an immature digestive system). I’m on AIM if you wanna chat!
quietlibrarian says
I have four kids. #1 breastfed for 3 months – I stopped because he wanted to look around and eat (ouch). #2 breastfed for 10 months – I stopped because I got lonely leaving the room at shabbat meals and family gatherings (I also now own an amazing feeding shawl!) #3 had heart surgery, so I expressed and gave her my milk from a bottle or feeding tube till we got home from hospital, by which time she had not learnt how to nurse and I was fed up pumping and sterilising all day, so we switched to formula. #4 just stopped recently, age 17 months, because she started pulling down my top in public saying “milk, milk”. Each baby has been such a different experience, but each time you have to consider 2 people. Yes, we all know breast milk is best for babies, but if it’s causing trauma to Mummies, it is not necessarily best. You defintely don’t have to cut out all that stuff from your diet. My sister in law was told it can take up to 48hrs for a food to go from you eating it till baby eating it, so it’s really hard to identify what particular thing is bothering her. But, you can try cutting stuff out and if she’s not better after a week, you know it’s not that! You can keep trying till you find the right thing if you have that much patience. #4 has a terrible milk allergy, yet I ate ALOT of dairy the entire time I nursed her. All my babies have been sensitive to tomatoes, specially soup and sauce. And I cut out caffiene (but not coffee, or chocolate, because those are like oxygen and very necessary) Don’t forget if you don’t eat, you won’t make good milk (and not everything it says on the internet is true!). You can try your hardest, and it sounds like you are, but if it doesn’t work for you, bottle feeding is not a crime and you shouldn’t feel guilty about it, especially since she had your amazing milk for the first part of her life.
Good luck!
mamamia says
wow, i feel with you… great you still sticking it out.
you could try goats milk products. sometimes that works, because it’s closer to human milk and has lots of different milk proteins from cow’s milk. usually it’s the cow’s milk protein that causes the trouble.
also try some of the foods on the list, for me it came out that only peas, coffee and hummus was causing troubles. after 4-5 months i could have everything without trouble. still breastfeeding at 13 months…
pesha says
eat meat and nuts! you need the protein and your body and energy levels will thank you!
Hannah @A Mother in Israel says
The health ministry has warned against giving those drops to baby. It sounds like they aren’t helping anyway.
Allergies are usually not the main reason that a baby is fussy or colicky. There are many more common reasons,and lots of things to try first. Often there is no reason, and baby grows out of it (but mom may still think that a change in diet was the reason).
The list doesn’t sound very reliable to me. Especially iron–babies are fussy when they got iron supplements, not their moms.
-Hannah
Mrs Belogski says
Our oldest son used to cry a lot, I would feed him, then he would spend the next 2 hours crying and bringing it all back up again, till it was the time when I really should have fed him. Eventually we cracked it by giving him a pacifier – he didn’t need to eat, only to suck. He used it for a few months and then gave it up by himself, unlike his twin sister who continued to be a thumbsucker for a very long time. So – having seen your tweet that you were advised not to feed your daughter so much, have you tried a pacifier?
holylandhipstermom says
We are trying the pacifier and she doesn’t love it but we’re hoping she’ll change her mind!