Paleo and breast feeding

Gabe Rinaldi · 03-31-2009, 02:43 PM

We have a 1 month old son and my wife has been very successful with breastfeeding thus far. She did not eat Paleo during pregnancy or for this first month. We are planning on going strict Paleo soon. She is supplementing with a prenatal and fish oil. I don't foresee any problem with having her go strict Paleo, but I figured I would run it by the experts on this forum. Anything we need to know before doing this? Thanks!

George Mounce · 03-31-2009, 03:05 PM

No problems, my wife eats Paleo and breastfed for the first 6 months. I would say it is 100% awesome your wife is willing to do so, your child gets what your wife eats.

Garrett Smith · 03-31-2009, 05:51 PM

Just make sure she is getting enough calories, especially if she is removing a lot of grains and dairy from her diet.

Gabe Rinaldi · 03-31-2009, 09:05 PM

Thanks for the comments. I'll keep a close eye on her and my son and make any changes as needed. I think this will be positive all the way around as we have felt the best when we have been strict Paleo in the past. Cheers!

Gabe Rinaldi · 04-07-2009, 11:27 PM

I just thought of another question....does avoiding a certain food or type of food while breast feeding make a baby more likely to have a food allergy / intolerance if they eat that food in adult life? The reason I ask is because I remember hearing that if a mother avoids meat while breast feeding and the baby goes on to eat meat in adult life, then they have a greater risk of heart disease. Thoughts?

Garrett Smith · 04-08-2009, 06:00 AM

Gabe,
I don't know about the situation you're talking about, but it doesn't make sense to me.

What I can tell you is that the baby's food sensitivities can show up through breastmilk.

My baby was getting a crusty eye that was tearing and she rubbed it a lot. A short bit of research later (and looking at where my wife's diet was going), I suggested to my wife she cut out all the dairy. Next day, the eye issues were completely gone. A month or two later, the dairy started creeping back into my wife's diet. The problem slowly started coming on again. Big reduction in dairy got rid of the problem again.

Sounds like you've heard an "old wives tale" to me. I can't see why humans wouldn't be adaptable enough to take on "new" foods past what their breastfeeding mothers ate.

Chris Salvato · 04-08-2009, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

Gabe,
I don't know about the situation you're talking about, but it doesn't make sense to me.

What I can tell you is that the baby's food sensitivities can show up through breastmilk.

My baby was getting a crusty eye that was tearing and she rubbed it a lot. A short bit of research later (and looking at where my wife's diet was going), I suggested to my wife she cut out all the dairy. Next day, the eye issues were completely gone. A month or two later, the dairy started creeping back into my wife's diet. The problem slowly started coming on again. Big reduction in dairy got rid of the problem again.

Sounds like you've heard an "old wives tale" to me. I can't see why humans wouldn't be adaptable enough to take on "new" foods past what their breastfeeding mothers ate.

Garrett,

I think this belief stems from the effect of nutrition and diet on the developing fetus. During various trimesters the developing fetus will respond very differently to different kinds of diets -- particularly "Stressful" diets like fasting or weight loss diets -- that can cause complications down the road. The branch of research, if you never heard of it, is Fetal Origins of Adult Disease (FOAD).

I guess the implication is that at that early stage of development it may be possible for it to permanently alter development...but I am not sure if that has been researched yet.

Garrett Smith · 04-08-2009, 09:24 AM

Chris,
I completely agree with the FOAD, especially in terms of toxicity, malnutrition, or "overnutrition" (ie. gestational diabetes).

I'm just not so sure about the association that you mentioned--a lack of red meat eaten by the mother during pregnancy leading to some sort of "weakness" to eating red meat later in life.

Gabe Rinaldi · 04-09-2009, 10:47 AM

I heard about this issue in an undergrad anatomy class (no idea why this came up in an anatomy class) over 10 years ago. From my recollection, the professor made the statement that offspring from moms who were vegetarian while pregnant who later went on to eat meat were at higher risk for heart disease. I found it interesting as my mom was vegetarian while pregnant and I eat meat. I then heard something similar on the nightly news a few months back, but wasn't paying complete attention so I'm not sure I heard it correctly. I just spent a bit of time searching for research on this topic and I haven't found anything studying this exact thing. Here's a few interesting links:

http://lup.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/15/11/794

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/312/7028/410

It seems like there may be a link between a vegetarian diet while pregnant, birth weight, and heart disease, but this is a bit different that what I was originally thinking....and a whole lot different than food intolerances showing up in offspring from mothers who avoided certain foods like peanuts.