Calm Your Fussy Baby Easily By Changing Your Diet

When babies cry for hours on end, their parents (especially first-time parents) can be driven to distraction.  It is quite clear that something is bothering the baby.  What is not obvious is how to relieve the baby's pain.  The result is that someone walks with the crying, fretful baby for hours on end hoping to calm him or her, so that the house can be peaceful and that everyone has a hope of getting a decent night's sleep. The parents are exhausted.  The baby is exhausted.  Each day blends into the one before, with fussiness and crying as the grand finale to really long days.

There is hope.  There is a reason why the baby is fussy.  Many times, the reason for the fussiness at night is that a breastfeeding baby is reacting quite negatively to what his or her mother is eating.  During the first months of life, a newborn's digestive system is quite porous, which allows larger particles of foods through the lining of the digestive system into the blood stream.  Little bits of food particles normally found in a breastfeeding mom's breast milk can actually irritate the baby's digestive system, and can cause pain.  Also, the food bits that cross the lining of the digestive system can create slight allergic responses that become either frank food allergies, or food intolerances.  Both can result in the baby experiencing gas, pain and/or discomfort.

By eliminating certain foods on a short term basis, many breastfeeding mothers find that their babies' crying time decreases dramatically.  The diet modification process is relatively short, but effective.  Many mothers notice that if they cheat and eat the foods of concern, their babies cry and fuss throughout the evening.  When they follow the breastfeeding elimination diet, their babies hardly cry at all!  By about the fourth month, the lining of the baby's digestive system matures and many of the foods can be eaten with no ill-effects.

Here is one of the delicious breastfeeding-friendly recipes found in The Calm Baby Cookbook.  It is delicious way to use up any leftovers that you may have:

Waldorf Turkey Sandwiches

• ½ cup sunflower seeds
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup diced turkey
• ½ cup diced apple
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• ¼ cup raisins
• ½ cup Lite Miracle Whip or mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. grated lemon peel
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• Lettuce leaves
• Whole wheat rolls

Preheat a non-stick frying pan to medium-low and add the sunflower seeds and walnuts.  Stir often until they are toasted evenly.  Remove from the burner and let cool.

In a bowl, combine the Lite Miracle Whip or mayonnaise, lemon peel, sea salt and pepper.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir to coat.  Spoon onto fresh rolls and top with fresh lettuce.

Enjoy!

For more information about the foods that cause a baby's discomfort, please visit http://www.drmelaniebee.org/