On Sun, 2 Mar 2003 Kirsten Blacker wrote:
When I was Bf my kids (in Australia) cabbage was one of the foods I was
warned to avoid as it would give the BF gas. 

Hi,
   At various times and in various places breastfeeding mothers have been warned not to eat particular foods that are believed to cause "wind" or other bowel symptoms in the baby. Charles Dickens's 19th -century novel Dombey & Son reflects these beliefs in the words he put into the words of Mr & Mrs Chick when they were discussing dietary restrictions for the wet nurse they helped hire for Mr Dombey's motherless baby. These beliefs were certainly not new then.
   Interestingly, foods that may be recommended to mothers during one period "to make milk" may at another time be warned against!  Cocoa/chocolate are an example.  Green leafy vegetables are other foods that at some times here in Australia have been specifically listed by state health services as part of a balanced diet for the BF mother, and at other times anecdotally linked with a community belief that they may cause gas in the baby.  Even worse is the unofficial list, with no author or workplace attribution, that from time to time circulates in this state, with mothers warned to avoid so many foods that the diet would be unbalanced.  See my article:

Thorley V.  Maternal dietary advice as an artifact of time and culture: post-World War II Queensland. Breastfeeding Review 2002 (March);10(1):25-29.

   At a personal level, I was amused, when in hospital having a baby in December 1969, to be told by the other mothers that they "couldn't" eat the cooked dried peas that were served in the meals, as 'Doesn't the cook know that breastfeeding mothers "can't" eat that!'  They didn't eat it, and their babies didn't become gassy.  I *did * eat and enjoy this vegetable, and my baby didn't become gassy either.  Some weeks later, when I wasn't eating this vegetable, my baby did start five weeks of being colicky.  This proves nothing, of course.  I share the anecdote only as a reminder to be skeptical, and to try foods in moderation, only discontinuing them if there seems to be a problem - and if that problem resumes on trying the food again.  Often when a mother tells me she has gone off a particular green vegetable as her baby was windy, I ask if the windiness stopped when she wasn't eating it.  It is interesting to see them think for a moment and see that maybe it wasn't that as the symptoms have continued.  A few think stopping the food did help, but it is hard to untwine cultural belief from reality.
  I would want better evidence than we have, about these vegetables.
      Virginia

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       in Brisbane