14/01/2026
Useful info about the myths around food you eat and breastfeeding
Breast milk is NOT made directly from your stomach contents but within the breast itself from your blood. The foods you eat are broken down in your digestive system. Proteins, carbs, vitamins, white blood cells, enzymes, pre- and probiotics, water, fat, and chemicals (alcohol, caffeine, medications) are pulled from your intestines into the blood stream. Blood delivers these nutrients to the milk making glands in the breast. Every nutrient you consume gets used or stored and each type gets cleared from your blood in a certain amount of time. Cow protein, for example, is completely cleared from your blood steam within 8-12 HOURS of consumption. So it is completely eliminated in no more than 24 hours from your milk. Not weeks like some people are told when doing elimination diets. Caffeine clears your blood in 4-7 hours and alcohol within 2. Medications have longer or shorter half lives, which is how long they stay in your body, and larger or smaller molecules. Some can pass into breast milk and some can’t.
⚔️MYTH: Digestive discomfort and reflux is always from eating dairy
💡FACT: Cow milk protein allergy is only in 2-7% of the people. Digestive discomfort/reflux are more commonly caused by unidentified tongue ties
⚔️MYTH: Spicy food makes spicy breastmilk which will upset baby’s tummy
💡FACT: While the foods you eat can change the flavor of your milk, there is no evidence that capsaicin (the compound that makes foods spicy) is ever present in breast milk
⚔️MYTH: Beans, cabbage, broccoli, etc give baby gas
💡FACT: The insolvable fiber found in vegetables mixes with your gut bacteria and makes you gassy. Insoluble fiber does not leave the GI tract and cannot reach your milk
⚔️MYTH: Baby will refuse your milk if you eat garlic or other potent flavors
💡FACT: Research studies have found babies actually prefer the flavor of garlic in breastmilk and will spent more time at the breast and drink more milk. (Mennella, 1993)
⚔️MYTH: Soda and other carbonated beverages will make baby gassy
💡FACT: Carbonated drinks don’t carbonate the blood. The bubbles don’t get into your milk
What’s your favorite food and breastfeeding myth?
