A Guide to Foods to Avoid for Acid Reflux While Breastfeeding

"The content below is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition."

Your baby is dealing with acid reflux after breastfeeding and will not stop crying.

Don’t worry, you can help avoid acid reflux episodes like these in the future.

The main way to prevent acid reflux while breastfeeding is to avoid consuming foods that can cause acid reflux.

But what foods cause acid reflux in babies?

In this guide, we will break down all the foods to avoid for acid reflux while breastfeeding and show you how your nutrition can not only prevent acid reflux attacks but benefit your baby’s health even more.

The female body does some miraculous things, and breastfeeding is no exception.

A mother’s diet is directly related to the diet of their breastfeeding baby, as what you eat can impact the nutrition, composition, and even taste of your breast milk.

You may be wondering, how long does it take for ingested foods to influence your breast milk?

The answer? It varies depending on the type of food you ingest.

Let’s take a look at some examples of time it takes for certain foods to influence your breast milk:

• Coffee: 15-60 minutes
• Garlic: 2 hours
• Carrots: 2-3 hours
• Mint 4-6 hours

Some foods that influence your breast milk can affect your baby in different ways. For example, it’s possible for your child to have a food allergy in response to something you ate.

One of the most common reactions linked to a mother’s diet and breastfeeding is acid reflux .

You probably already know that it’s common and normal for infants to spit up after a meal. You’ve cleaned it up dozens of times, likely.

This little phenomenon is known as gastroesophageal reflux (GER).

However, frequent vomiting, irritation, and a slew of other symptoms can hint to a more serious problem, known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), commonly known as acid reflux.

Common acid reflux symptoms to look out for include:

• Frequent vomiting and regurgitation
• Persistent coughing or wheezing
• Difficulty eating
• Irritability associated with feeding or following feedings
• Gassiness

It can seem overwhelming trying to figure out which foods to avoid when breastfeeding a baby with reflux, especially when you have an already fussy baby.

Fruit and fruit juices with high acidity can trigger acid reflux in infants, causing discomfort.

Some acidic fruit and fruit juices you’ll want to avoid consuming are:

• Apples
• Oranges
• Lemons
• Other citrus fruits

You may be surprised to hear that tomatoes and tomato-based sauces are included in this list of foods to avoid for acid reflux while breastfeeding.

While tomatoes can be an excellent source of vitamin C, which is an essential nutrient for healthy breastfeeding, they are also very acidic—

which can lead to a very gassy, uncomfortable, and irritable baby.

Have you ever eaten a spicy meal only to get a dose of heartburn afterward? The same can happen to your baby when you breastfeed after eating spicy food.

While your daily cup of coffee isn’t enough to cause problems for your infant, experts advise breastfeeding mothers to not consume more than 750mL of caffeine per day (the equivalent of 5 cups of coffee).

It is best to only consume foods with high fat content in moderation while breastfeeding.

While seafood can be a great source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids that are wonderful building blocks for proper nutrition, some seafood can do more harm than good.

Avoid consuming seafood that is high in mercury. The mercury from these foods can find its way into your breast milk supply. Excessive amounts of mercury in breast milk can have adverse effects on your baby’s developing nervous system.

Some kinds of seafood that are high in mercury include:

• Swordfish
• King mackerel
• Tilefish

No level of alcohol in breastmilk is considered safe for your child to consume.

However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy a glass of wine every once in a while.

When it comes to breastfeeding and consuming alcohol, you have two options to ensure your child’s safety:

1. Pump before consuming alcohol. If you plan on enjoying an alcoholic beverage, you can pump breast milk before drinking alcohol so you have a clean supply to feed your baby later.
2. Wait it out.If you drink alcohol, wait for it to completely clear your breast milk before breastfeeding. Depending on your body weight, you’ll want to wait at least 2-3 hours after consuming:

• 12 oz. of 5% beer
• 5 oz. of 11% wine
• 1.5 oz. of 40% liquor

Neither your heart nor sanity can put up with your baby crying in discomfort for hours due to acid reflux, but it can be difficult to know exactly how to help soothe acid reflux in a breastfed baby or avoid it altogether for that matter.

After all, motherhood doesn’t come with an instruction manual.

There are two ways you can handle acid reflux in babies:

1. Treat the symptoms of acid reflux to soothe your baby’s discomfort.
2. Treat the root of the cause and avoid acid reflux altogether

There are a number of ways that you can decrease your baby’s discomfort caused by acid reflux.

If your baby is dealing with acid reflux, you can try to treat their symptoms by:

• Doing smaller, more frequent feeds
• Feeding your baby upright
• Thickening breast milk
• Burping your baby more frequently

When your baby’s stomach is too full, they are at greater risk of having acid reflux after feedings.

Feeding your baby more frequently in small amounts can help avoid irritating acid reflux symptoms.

This is because a less-full stomach decreases the amount of pressure put on the lower esophageal sphincter, which is a muscle that prevents food from going back into the esophagus from the stomach.

The lower esophageal sphincter takes about a year to strengthen,

which is why babies spit up often.

Feeding your baby in an upright position can help reduce the risk of acid reflux in babies.

Additionally, keeping your baby upright for at least 30 minutes after feeding is also believed to have the same acid reflux prevention effect.

With your doctor’s approval, you can thicken your breast milk by adding a small amount of infant rice cereal. Thickening the breast milk can help lessen spit-ups and acid reflux symptoms.

It’s important to burp your baby often—both during and after feedings.

Now that we have discussed how to treat acid reflux symptoms , let’s talk about a better option— preventing acid reflux episodes before they happen.

Holistic nutrition is an excellent tool to help avoid acid reflux in infants caused by breastfeeding.

You may be wondering, “what is holistic nutrition and how is it related to foods to avoid for acid reflux while breastfeeding?”.

Holistic nutrition is based on the idea that your nutrition is related to all aspects of your health.

Holistic nutrition is a lifestyle that involves eating healthy foods that are:

• Whole
• Un-refined
• Un-processed
• Organic
• Locally grown

Let’s talk about how holistic nutrition benefits both the breastfeeding mother and child.

Holistic nutrition focuses on providing your body with nutrient-dense foods that will only have a positive impact on your health.

If your diet is not having a positive impact on your health, chances are that it is not positively impacting the health of your breastfed baby either.

Think about it: if certain foods give you acid reflux, why wouldn’t your baby be susceptible to the same kind of reaction by consuming that food composition through your breast milk?

Holistic nutrition involves eliminating refined and processed foods, which are known to cause acid reflux.

By not consuming these foods or strictly limiting the consumption, you are stopping the problem at the source instead of simply treating symptoms.

However, healthy and whole foods can also be culprits of acid reflux attacks.

Holistic nutrition goes beyond simply what foods to avoid for acid reflux while breastfeeding.

Not only does holistic nutrition help avoid acid reflux episodes for you and your breastfeeding child, but it provides both of you with the best nutrition possible for optimal health.