Transcription
Hey mums, today I want to have a quick chat to you about whether you should be avoiding certain foods when you're breastfeeding. When our babies start to get a windy tummy, or maybe your baby has developed some skin issues like eczema, when you turn to Dr. Google, it can tell you a whole heap of things that you need to eliminate from your diet. But is this absolutely necessary?
The thing is, is that everyone, every baby, every mom is different. And so what might work for your best friend, or your auntie, or your sister, might not necessarily work for you. And what I often see is moms going on these really restrictive diets, trying to get to the bottom of what's upsetting their baby. And in the meantime, further depleting themselves.
So this is where I would start in terms of trialing and elimination. So with dairy, wheat, and soy being very common food allergens, I do find that these are often the culprits of babies who are colicky, or have upset tummies, or even skin conditions. By reducing these, you aren't going to be impacting your nutritional intake, as long as you're replacing it with plenty of wholesome, unprocessed foods.
In particular, the foods that we spoke about in the first video, vegetables in the cabbage family, onions, and garlic are common foods that many mums associate with their babies having upset tummies. So that could be something that you want to trial as well. A short trial of this should be able to tell if that is an issue for your baby.
For me, it was so obvious with both of my daughters. As soon as I eliminated wheat and dairy, their tummy issues cleared up. And this was quite early on as well. So with my first daughter, I figured it out. I cut out a lot of things, and honestly, it was very stressful and um, it definitely wasn't a good idea for me because I was already very depleted. But I wanted to, you know, make sure that nothing I was eating was affecting her. And what I ended up finding was that it was wheat and dairy. Um, and so when my second daughter had similar issues quite early on, I knew that I just needed to tighten up. And because I already eat predominantly that way, it wasn't too difficult for me.
So that is something that I do share with a lot of moms because it is a very simple change when you know what to eat. And it doesn't restrict a lot of food groups either. You're still able to get all those really key nutrients you need that we chatted about in the first video, um, all about breastfeeding nutrition, um, what nutrients you really need, not just for your breast milk, but also for yourself.
And then there are other moms' experiences where they can literally pinpoint certain foods that are very obvious with their baby reacting. So it would be helpful if you can kind of take note if you've eaten anything different when baby is a little bit fussy. But I did want to really highlight the fact that your nutritional needs are very, very important. I know as mothers, our first response is to just do anything for our baby. But going super, super restrictive, like all of these anti-colic diets recommend, is not going to be super beneficial for you when you're trying to rebuild, rebalance, and replenish after pregnancy.
So start with a good, healthy, unprocessed diet, full of those nutrients that we talked about in the first video. And then if you find that baby is reacting a little bit fussy, then we can start looking at maybe pinpointing certain triggers.
I'll also add in as well that it's not always food-based. Sometimes our babies might need a little bit of extra gut support. Adding in a pro, an infant probiotic can be very beneficial in helping to restore good balance with their gut bacteria, especially depending on their birth. There's antibiotics or the way that they were birthed, this can all impact their gut flora and the balance as well, which then impacts their digestive system. Remember that they just have a little tiny immature digestive system, so sometimes they're a little bit sensitive. And so don't immediately put it down to what you're eating. Make sure you give yourself space to make sure that your nutritional needs are being met as well.