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Home › Articles › Overcoming Difficulties › Is It Something You Ate?

Is It Something You Ate?

The Art of the Elimination Diet

By Kelly Burgess

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Using the Elimination Diet
Although the elimination diet can be used in a very basic way on your own, such as Cobbley did with cutting back on drinking milk and as Matthies did with giving up brussel sprouts for a few months, a total elimination diet should never be attempted without your doctor's supervision. For one thing, good nutrition should be a priority for a nursing mother. For another, there still is research being conducted into possible bone mass loss issues for nursing mothers using elimination diets.

Having said that, Cindy Curtis, IBCLC, site owner of Breastfeeding Online and the mother of two, thinks the food component in breastfeeding is highly overrated.

"Doctors put too many restrictions, and I think too much importance, upon what the mom is eating," says Curtis. "I tell moms if you ate it while you were pregnant, then you should still be able to eat it, within reason, when you're nursing. However, if you eat for example broccoli for lunch, and the baby seems gassy later, don't eat broccoli for a week. If you eat it again a week later and the baby's fine, then the baby was probably just fussy."

Wendy Shore, IBCLC, and director of the Lactation Resource Center at Memorial Hospital in York, Pa., agrees. "On the whole we're trying to convince women to nurse, and we should not be trying to make it any more difficult or challenging seeming because that may just discourage them," says Shore. "While a low-fat diet is probably not the best thing for a nursing mother, almost anything goes nutrition-wise. There are a lot of myths surrounding this issue, and many of the myths are related to food intake."

A Healthy Diet
In our culture, there's very little chance of a mother having to worry too much about whether or not she's getting enough nutrients because we're a very well-fed society. However, it never hurts to follow a basic, healthy diet.

This would include high-quality sources of protein such as lean meats, nuts and eggs. In general, milk is good as are other dairy products such as yogurt. Go heavy on fresh fruits and vegetables, especially low-acid fruits such as pears, and low-gas producing vegetables, such as beans and carrots. Many vegetables and fruits are better tolerated cooked as opposed to raw.

Remember, if a baby is fussy after you've eaten something you normally don't eat, it doesn't hurt to cut that food out of your diet. Similarly, if you suspect something you eat frequently, such as milk, may be upsetting your baby's stomach, discuss how to handle it with your pediatrician. However, sometimes a fussy baby is just fussy.

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