So since I wrote that post the other day about seeing the light at then end of tunnel in regards to Lior’s wind, we’ve had some new major attacks. Actually, truth be told, they started a few days before I posted that (I had written the post a week or so early and hadn’t published it yet), but I was hoping it would clear up again!

It hasn’t, and after only getting sleep at 3am with Lior laying on top of me, my mum coming to stay Sunday night to help, and another horrible bout of wind last night I thought it was time to try something new. Insanity, they say, is doing something over and over again and hoping for different results. So I thought I’d do some more research to get to the bottom of the whole food and breastfeeding thing, as well as baby wind in general.

Some research:

In the rare instance that food is causing gassiness and fussiness, it’s most likely a problem with dairy protein. Symptoms of a food allergy or intolerance might include diarrhea, rash, fussiness, gas, runny nose, cough, or congestion. You might try cutting out all dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, butter) for a couple of weeks to see if there’s an improvement.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_breast-milk-interactions-chart_8788.bc

…there are so many variables involved, including how often you nurse, the type of food you eat, and your individual body chemistry and metabolism. An average (and this is only an average) is about 4-6 hours, but it can reach your milk as soon as one hour or take as long as twenty-four hours.

 

During the first six months of life, the lining of the baby’s is immature, so allergens that appear in the milk can get into the bloodstream and trigger allergic responses in some extremely sensitive babies. The lining of the intestines is also more sensitive during the early months, and is more easily irritated than it would be later on by the same substances.

 

After six months, the lining of the intestines matures so that allergens can’t get through as easily and
your baby will be much less sensitive to foods in your diet. That’s one of the reasons that babies should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. If solids are introduced before that time, then the baby is more likely to have an allergic reaction to something that might not affect him later on.

http://www.breastfeedingbasics.com/qa/what-i-eat-to-get-into-my-breastmilk

This is confusing because it’s contrary to recent research I shared on our FB page, saying that there are benefits to introducing solids at 4 months…

All babies have days when they are gassy, fussy, or spit up more than usual, and chances are that it has nothing to do with your diet. Nursing mothers rarely have to make any dietary modifications.

http://www.breastfeedingbasics.com/qa/what-i-eat-to-get-into-my-breastmilk

What IS the cause of gassiness etc then??

How do substances enter human milk? When someone takes medication or eats food, the substance is usually broken down by the digestive tract and then molecule-sized components of the substance are absorbed into the blood. When these molecules get to the capillaries near the breast tissue, they move through the cells that line the alveoli and into the milk, a process known as diffusion.

 

The process of diffusion allows good things, such as antibodies, to easily enter colostrum and mature milk. Antibodies are a kind of protein found in blood that help the body fight infection.

 

This is one of the great advantages of breastfeeding. All women transfer antibodies to their babies during pregnancy and birth, but breastfeeding prolongs the time in which the mother’s body helps protect the baby from illness.

 

However, other substances also enter the breast by diffusion. One fairly common belief about breastfeeding is that if mothers eat foods that make her gassy, such as broccoli or cabbage, the baby will be gassy. Is this true? No. Gas from a mother’s intestinal tract cannot pass into her blood and deposit itself into the breast for her baby to drink. However, when food is digested, some of the proteins do enter the blood and may then pass into a mother’s milk. Some babies may be sensitive to a particular protein and react with gas and fussiness. If a baby has an obvious reaction every time a mother eats a certain food, she can eliminate that food from her diet, but it is important to remem-ber that, for most fussy and gassy babies, the problem stems from some source other than mother’s milk.

This is important to understand.

 

Mothers sometimes think that after they drink a glass of wine the alcohol stays in their milk until that milk is removed from the breast. As a result, they may hesitate to breastfeed their baby and decide to pump the milk out instead. In reality, the level of alcohol in the milk drops as a mother’s blood levels drop. It takes two to three hours for a 120-pound woman to eliminate from her body the amount of alcohol found in a single glass of wine or beer. When the alcohol is eliminated from her blood, it is also gone from her milk.

Anatomy of a Working Breast By Anna Edgar

Sebring FL USA From: NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 22 No. 2, March-April 2005, pp. 44-50

Gas is produced in the digestive tract from the moment baby has his or her first drink of breast milk or formula. Newborn gas is a natural by-product of digesting lactose, proteins and other nutrients.

 http://www.coliccalm.com/baby_infant_newborn_articles/gas_problems_treatment.htm