Foods causing colic in breastfed babies

Foods to Eat or Avoid When Breastfeeding

Reviewed by Poonam Sachdev on June 26, 2022

It’s a good source of protein. Some, like salmon and tuna, also give you omega-3s, which your body needs. But what about mercury and other contaminants? You can have cooked seafood twice per week. Each serving can be up to 6 ounces, which is the size of two decks of cards. Choose types that are lower in mercury, such as salmon, tilapia, and trout. Avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish, which have high levels of mercury.

Love hot sauce? Most babies can handle it and other fiery foods in your diet. But if your little one is gassy or colicky and gets diarrhea every time you sprinkle red pepper flakes over your pizza, cut back on the heat for a few weeks to see if that helps.

They’re full of flavor. But some herbs may affect how much milk your body makes. For instance, eating a lot of parsley could curb lactation. And too much sage and peppermint may cut your milk supply. For some nursing moms, even peppermint-flavored toothpaste and candies are a problem.

It’s rarely a problem. But see how your baby does. Tell your pediatrician if your tot gets skin problems, has trouble breathing after breastfeeding, or has other symptoms.

As refreshing as your cup of chai or Earl Grey may be, it has some downsides. It’s got caffeine, which can affect your sleep – and your baby’s. It may also make it harder for your body to absorb iron, which you need for energy. If you drink hot or iced tea, try not to sip it when you eat foods that are rich in iron, such as lean meat; dark, leafy greens; and fortified breakfast cereals.

What if you aren’t allergic, and you want to prevent your baby from developing an allergy? Sorry, but there’s no proof that you can do that by skipping specific foods. Cutting certain foods out of your diet may make the skin condition eczema less likely for your little one. Ask your doctor or pediatrician for advice.

Breastfeeding can make you thirstier than you usually are. If that’s the case, drink a glass of water every time you breastfeed. But no matter how parched you feel, don’t go for regular sodas or fruit drinks, which give you calories without nutrition.

It's best for your baby if you don't have any booze at all. But if you do choose to drink, don’t breastfeed until the alcohol has completely cleared your milk. For 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of liquor, wait at least 3 hours. Pumping doesn’t speed that up.

Common culprits include beans, broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. Bloating, burping, and passing gas are normal. But if your baby is gassy or has colic, avoid these foods for a few weeks to see whether they relieve the symptoms.

Both have caffeine. You’ll also find it in energy drinks and cola. If you’re lost without your latte, limit yourself to 2-3 cups per day of the brewed kind. Or you could switch to decaf.

IMAGES PROVIDED BY:

1) Getty

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6) Getty, iStock

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SOURCES:

Mayo Clinic.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

La Leche League.

The American Academy of Pediatrics.

U.S. Department of Agriculture.

What Foods Help With Baby Colic? | Colic Blog | Babocush

When your baby seems perfectly healthy, has no obvious signs of distress and yet cries continually, they may be suffering from colic. Colic is prolonged bouts of excessive, frequent crying for no apparent reason, although some abdominal discomfort is thought to accompany it due to the way many babies draw their knees up when they cry which would indicate trapped wind. These episodes can be very distressing for both baby and parent, and can last for several weeks.

When are the typical signs of colic?

Normal crying typically starts when your little one is about 2 weeks old. When babies develop colic, it's usually between 2 and 4 weeks of age. About 1 in 5 babies end up suffering with colic. Other symptoms typically include:

Crying inconsolably for long periods of time.
Some babies with colic experience bloated tummies, however not always.
Babies with colic often pull their knees up to their chest and go red in the face
Although there may be other causes, babies with colic often have a distinctive, high-pitched cry.

Diet-related colic

One thing you might not have thought about is the foods you're putting into your body. Breastfeeding mothers can normally eat whatever they want, however some newborns are intolerant to certain foods. The essential criteria for a good post-natal diet is to eat foods that are soothing, comforting, and nutritious. Slow-cooked foods, such as soups and stews, are recommended, as is avoiding too much raw food and limiting meals consumed straight from the refrigerator or freezer. Anything too harsh that passes through the mother's milk could harm a baby's developing gut. Colic-causing foods can enter your breast milk and upset your baby as early as two hours after you eat, with potential irritants being:

Dairy products

Milk, cheese, yoghurt, and ice cream are examples of dairy products. Cow's milk is known to be a main source of diet-related colic. Cow's milk proteins quickly enter breast milk, which is usually a positive thing because it familiarises your baby with these proteins early on, setting them up for when they’re weaned. Colic can, however, be caused by a sensitivity to cow's milk.

If you feel this is the case, try avoiding dairy products for 7-10 days to see if you notice a difference. If your baby's behaviour hasn't improved, gradually reintroduce the food again. If you see a difference and are concerned about your calcium intake, consult a nutritionist about different ways to get calcium, such as through leafy greens, broccoli, edamame, sardines, figs, oranges and calcium-fortified products.

Caffeine

Soft drinks, chocolate, coffee, tea, energy drinks, and some medicines all contain caffeine, and if you consume enough of it, your baby may develop colic. Many mums find that giving up caffeine can produce instant positive changes to their baby’s behaviour.

Spicy foods

Theres a distinct taste in your breast milk after you’ve eaten a spicy dinner. This is because traces of spice have found their way into your milk supply. This is fine for most babies and helps them get used to new tastes, but for others, even the tiniest amount of spice can be enough to make them uncomfortable. If you've ever had heartburn after eating spicy food, this is considerably more likely to be the case.

Grains and nuts

Fats from cereals, nuts, seeds, avocados, and olives are essential for keeping your baby's skin healthy, although they can occasionally induce colic. Wheat, corn, peanuts, and soy are the most typical culprits.

Gassy foods

You've probably experienced the unpleasant side-effects of a meal high in gassy vegetables like broccoli, onions, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage. Gas can cause a lot of discomfort in the stomach, and if your baby is particularly sensitive to it, eliminating gassy foods could be the answer.

Tracking down colic-causing foods

Determining whether the food you eat could be causing your baby’s colic is achieved with a simple three-step process:

Step 1. Keep a record

You can develop associations between food and discomfort by keeping track of what you eat and when and how long your baby experiences colic episodes. Keep track of any changes in your baby's behaviour, such as fussiness, weeping, bloating, constipation, or diarrhoea, nocturnal wakings that aren't explained, or reddening around the anus.

Step 2. Eliminate foods

You can now rule out the suspect source after establishing a correlation between food and behaviour. Try to avoid this food for 10 to 14 days then check to see whether your baby's colic symptoms are lessening or disappearing. Return to step one if nothing has changed. Continue to step three if the symptoms improve.

Step 3. Challenge the result

If your baby's symptoms have gone away, cautiously reintroduce the source to test it. If the symptoms return within 24 hours, remove this meal from your diet temporarily. Continue to challenge the food supply at regular intervals until you've determined it's safe to eat again. Most babies are only temporarily intolerant of certain foods, so declaring a meal off-limits may unnecessarily deprive you and your baby of a vital source of nutrition.

Maintaining an anti-colic diet

To help reduce any chance of colic, there are a number of foods that you can limit or avoid during the six weeks leading up to birth and the 2-3 months that follow. These include berries, grapes, stone fruit, strawberries, mangoes, cabbage, tomatoes, lentils, garlic, pineapple, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cucumber, radish, cauliflower, raw onion, strong herbs and spices, powdered yeast and stimulants (tea, coffee, chocolate and alcohol).

There are also some foods that will encourage a healthy gut and can help prevent symptoms of colic. These include apples, pears, asparagus, carrot, celery, kale, corn, bananas, papaya, celery, beetroot, pumpkin, zucchini, mushrooms, teas (chamomile, dandelion, fennel and cardamom), bone broths and apple cider vinegar.

There is no recognised “cure” for colic, although you may see some reduction in symptoms if you use a trial-and-error strategy. You may find that one thing works or that it is the consequence of a combination of circumstances, but be prepared to wait it out. Your baby will grow out of it eventually, and having a baby with colic has nothing to do with your parenting. Colic can affect any infant at any moment, and although it's natural to feel frustrated and upset, you should never feel responsible for your child's suffering.

Related Blogs:

Do Breastfed Babies Get Colic?
How Can I Tell My Baby Has Colic?

Colic in a newborn - causes and symptoms. Foods that cause colic in a child

Colic is pain in the abdomen caused by the accumulation of gas in the intestines. Unfortunately, babies are familiar with these unpleasant sensations firsthand.

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The body of a newborn is only adapting to the new conditions of extrauterine life, and normal microflora has not yet formed in its intestines. That is why in the first months of a child's life, his parents often have to deal with uncontrollable crying, which seems to never end. Colic begins in newborns at the age of 2-4 weeks. The good news is that they usually run out by 3 months of age.

How to understand that a baby has colic:

Sudden and piercing crying. If your baby usually calms down when you take him in your arms, rock him, talk affectionately, stroke his back - this does not help here. The only thing that will alleviate the condition of the baby is the passage of gases.
The baby arches its back and presses its legs to the stomach. Colic is always a cutting, sharp pain.
The child may turn pale.
Sometimes the baby releases gases.

All of these symptoms usually begin shortly after feeding.

Common causes of colic in children:

Incorrect feeding technique (breast or bottle). Together with mother's milk or formula, a child can swallow a lot of air, which causes bloating.
Excited state of the baby. A child can catch air not only during feeding, but also with a long cry. This is characteristic of children "with character", demanding, loud.
Incorrectly selected formula for babies on artificial nutrition.
feeding mode. Sometimes, in order to find the most suitable mode for your baby, you need to experiment. Of course, it is better to do this after consulting with your doctor.
Mom's food. Colic during breastfeeding can very often be caused by the fact that the mother does not eat properly. There are a number of foods that cause colic in babies, and to make life easier for both the baby and the parents, it is enough to exclude them from the mother's diet.

Foods that cause colic while breastfeeding:

1. Spicy, smoked and salty dishes

2. Black yeast bread

3. Whole milk

4. Mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard

5. Legumes

6. Raw vegetables and fruits

7. Carbonated drinks

8. Coffee and chocolate

9. Alcohol

How to help a baby with colic

First of all, calm down yourself. When the baby is torn from screaming and nothing can calm him down, the mother, of course, also “turns on”. Be patient and convey to the baby your calmness and confidence that everything will pass soon. The main thing is that you are there when he needs it and help him.

Place your baby on your stomach, in your arms, or in the crib more often.
Put something warm under your baby's belly.
After at least 15 minutes have passed after feeding, massage the tummy. Do not forget to lubricate your hands with cream or cosmetic oil. Stroke the tummy in a clockwise circular motion.
Prepare a reasonably hot bath for your baby. This will help him relax.
Do gymnastics, pressing the child's legs, bent at the knees, to his tummy.

Often, problems with colic in newborns and older children can be solved if a nursing mother drinks teas with fennel, cumin, anise, lemon balm. They help a lot with excessive gas formation.

#PROMO_BLOCK#

Be attentive to your baby and also check out our expert article on spitting up in newborns.

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Foods that cause colic in newborns

The baby cannot fall asleep, at first glance he cries for no reason, behaves anxiously. All this causes anxiety among young parents, who cannot immediately guess what is the main reason for such behavior. And the answer may lie on the surface. It’s just that mom didn’t follow a diet and allowed herself foods that cause colic in babies. As a result, the baby develops intestinal spasms, pain, which means that the little one begins to cry and spin. To prevent this from happening, the mother should monitor her diet by excluding foods that cause colic in children from the menu.

Foods that can cause colic in newborns

Avoid foods that cause colic in newborns in your daily diet. These include:

Whole milk. The lactose contained in the composition refers to a substance that causes colic in newborns due to gas formation. This product is poorly absorbed by the baby's body and can cause, in addition to bloating, allergic reactions. In your diet, it is better to replace milk with kefir, curdled milk, fermented baked milk.
Spicy sauces. Ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard cause intestinal irritation, which causes colic in newborns, so it is not recommended to include these products in the menu of a nursing woman.
Black bread. The enzymes that make up the composition lead to gas formation. When breastfeeding, this product is best replaced with whole grain bread.
Legumes. Lentils, corn, beans, peas are foods that cause colic in newborns. Instead, it is better to include other protein-rich foods in the diet of a nursing mother. For example, cottage cheese, soy cheese, low-fat fish.
Raw vegetables and fruits. Flatulence causes fiber, and some fruits can cause an allergic reaction. Therefore, any vegetables and fruits should be heat treated.
Sweets. Chocolate, sweets are among those products that cause colic in children. So it is better to give up your favorite delicacies. Carbonated drinks. Not only Fanta or Coca-Cola can cause colic in newborns, but also ordinary sparkling mineral water. So you should accustom yourself to drinking weak tea or herbal decoctions.

How to make a menu to save a newborn from colic

Knowing what foods cause colic in babies, any woman can make the right menu for herself. It may include:

Lean fish and meat.
Cottage cheese, kefir, fermented baked milk.
Buckwheat, rice, wheat groats.
Baked vegetables and fruits.

It is important to consider not only what foods cause colic in newborns, but also to understand what can cause gas. In this regard, it is necessary:

There are products separately without mixing them.
Drink more clean water.
Eat in small portions.
Avoid exotic foods.

To increase the protective properties of the child's body, it is necessary to gradually introduce new foods into the diet. After all, the baby should prepare for nutrition not only with mother's milk. And at this stage it is very important to reduce the formation of colic. For this purpose, you can give the baby the drug "Kolikid", which is shown to children from the first months of life. The active ingredient simethicone gently eliminates gas formation in the stomach of the baby, without penetrating into the bloodstream and not being absorbed by the body.