>...Since gas from beans is caused by a local reaction of a high fiber, hi carb >food incompletely digesting and subsequently fermenting (oh joy) in the GI >tract of the mother, I'm not sure how the gas then gets into her blood stream >and into the breast milk to cause gas in the baby... (Jan B.) >...Pardon me, since I am not a dietician or medical professional, but I >thought it was indigestible *sugars*... (Rachael) Nutritionists use "sugar," "carbohydrate," and "fiber" in overlapping contexts. But if it passes the small intestine without getting digested and absorbed, makes it to the large intestine, is digested there by our friends, the intestinal bacteria, who by the way are the ones who actually make gas, then we can safely assume it did not get absorbed into the bloodstream and from there into the milk. Therefore Jan is right. Of course we humble nutritionists are learning new things about digestion every year (who'd have ever thought cow milk molecules could make it into breastmilk without killing us off by anaphylaxis first?) but I am going to stand by the time-honored concept that "indigestible sugars" (long chain carbohydrates, really) are not going to be absorbed whole and go traveling through the bloodstream. Nor is the blood "carbonated" after a dinner of beans. I liked Jan's other thoughts on causes of baby fussiness. Arly [log in to unmask] (Arly Helm, MS, CLE, IBCLC)