Cutting Dairy Does Not Stop Breastfed Babies’ Gas

Complaints about infant crying and gas often lead mothers to remove dairy products from their meals. Claudia Ontiveros, a maternal and infant nutritionist, lactation adviser and diabetes educator, says that practice does not address the usual explanation for the baby’s discomfort.

The lactose found in human milk is made by the mammary gland. It does not come from the milk, cheese or yoghurt consumed by the mother. Consequently, avoiding those foods does not remove lactose from breast milk and is not, on its own, a treatment for infant gas.

Ontiveros also rejects the idea that gas formed during a mother’s digestion can be transmitted to her baby during nursing. “The gases produced during the mother’s digestion do not pass into the milk,” she says. For that reason, a baby’s colic or digestive discomfort should not automatically be attributed to something the mother has eaten.

When dietary restriction may be appropriate

The nutritionist distinguishes this situation from an allergy to cow’s-milk protein. In that condition, certain proteins may trigger an allergic reaction in some babies. The mechanism is different from lactose, and removing dairy may be appropriate when there is a clinical reason to suspect the allergy.

Ontiveros says a suspected allergy requires medical assessment and a complete clinical history before the mother changes her diet. The presence of gas alone is not presented as sufficient grounds for eliminating dairy products. Persistent symptoms or a possible allergic reaction should be discussed with a health professional.

Unsupervised restrictions can reduce the quality of the mother’s diet and affect her peace of mind without necessarily benefiting the baby, according to Ontiveros. In a healthy breastfed infant, removing milk, cheese and yoghurt is therefore not an effective strategy for gas: the lactose in breast milk does not depend on the mother’s dairy intake, and the mother’s digestive gas is not transferred through breastfeeding.