breast milk question

[houseelf]

DS2 has colic sometimes. I'm starting to think that it may be food related, but he is BF 95% of the time. I have read that breastmilk is supposed to cut down on colic, but apparently it doesn't work in this case.

I've never had this before so I have several questions. Most importantly, how long does it take for my body to convert my food into breast milk. My SIL swears that her baby cried everytime she ate broccoli. This doesn't make sense because it isn't like you eat something and then twenty minutes later it is dispensed as breast milk. Second, how should I go about pinpointing which food it is? I thought it might be raw veggies, but now I'm not so sure.

Help? Suggestions?

Kelly

My first thought *if* it is diet related is consumption of dairy products. Anyone I know who experienced diet related issues found some relief by cutting out dairy and could very clearly link the baby's reaction after nursing when dairy had been consumed earlier (but not that as quickly as your SIL suggests).

I asked the same question here in relation to E and her fussiness. I *swear* that spicy food would set her off. Someone posted a link to Kellymom or something like that. My conclusion after reading a bit about it is that there isn't specific stuff in the breast milk but that the "aroma" or something like that might have been in the milk. Twice some spicy Thai food seemed to lead to a really upset baby. I just swore it off for a while.

Not sure about the dairy. Have you asked the pedi about reflux? Zantac saved my sanity.

[Rapunzel]

I found with my babies (every single one of which had colic) that it was actually a problem with reflux. I do think that some things I would eat would set it off in a worse way - but it never truly went away when I altered my diet. It became obvious that eating chocolate was just not agreeing with a couple of my kids. Stop eating chocolate? Heck with that! That's when I decided to medicate them. Let me just say that Zantac syrup is a great little medication.

[SuzySunshine]

With A it was me having dairy - giving up dairy KILLED me and the doc told me I only had to do it until she was 12 weeks, something about her digestive system being more mature at that time. So I gave it up from weeks 6-12 and she was noticeably better, then we slowly introduced it after 12 and she was fine. She was still getting formula at the time but only one bottle of 4-6 ounces/day.

[houseelf]

Stop eating chocolate?

Now, let's not get ugly. I am trying to eat bland foods, but I can't really see a connection. I think that I am going to have to fill the prescription for Zanac. He is such a sweet, happy baby, except when he is not.

Kelly

I really don't think it's the spicy / bland thing. If you ate something exceptionally spicy, yes, (poor Mattie after our visit to MIL's at 3 weeks), but food with .... regular flavor? Probably not. I've really heard it tend more towards actual allergens: dairy, gluten -- that kind of stuff.

I say fill the prescription and try it for a week. You will know in that amount of time.

[Michele]

It can take 14 days for dairy to be out of your system....so if you decide to cut dairy to see if it helps, you might not notice it for a while. If it's reflux, you can also try elevating the bed/crib (books under the legs at the head of the crib) and keeping him upright for about 20 minutes after feeding (I used the wrap with Daegan and wore him for that time). But the meds helped the most for his reflux. (I could hear milk sloshing back up his throat when I laid him down in bed.)

With Daegan, dairy bugged him....and with Kai, it was broccoli and McDonalds (though this is the first time I'm admitting to the McDonald's out-loud ). Daegan was about 6 months old when I stopped being crazy about avoiding dairy and Kai was about 4 months old when I noticed he stopped reacting to my diet.

For Kai, if I ate broccoli for dinner, he was burpy and grumpy with gut pains the next morning....if I ate it for lunch, he was fussy during dinner time and early evening.

reflux.org has some good info.

[Rapunzel]

After you start him on zantac you do have to give it a week or two to really be effective. If reflux is the problem you'll have to wait until his little esophagus heals up from the stomach acid.

The way my babies reacted with reflux (and the way it was diagnosed every time): Baby starts nursing. Baby gets a few sucks in - everything seems fine. Then, baby rears back and begins screaming. Wants to eat but screams in between sucks. Total nightmare.

It really did take about a week or so on zantac to see results. But, they were very obvious results.

[Meenah]

My brother's baby was also put on Zantac and the colic went away!!!

[ides]

The way my babies reacted with reflux (and the way it was diagnosed every time): Baby starts nursing. Baby gets a few sucks in - everything seems fine. Then, baby rears back and begins screaming. Wants to eat but screams in between sucks. Total nightmare.

I had this with Oscar but it was due to overactive letdown. The milk was okay in the bottle. I agree it was a total nightmare.

He can handle the flow now but it took months and what felt like forever.