This issue has been really my concern. I always love hot & spicy. When I buy food, I order 'extra hot', 'more chilli', 'more pepper' and so on. The fact that what I eat will affect the taste of my my breast milk reeaaally make me sad. I eat almost everything with chili paste (but not ice cream and sweet stuff of course).
I found an article written by Angela White, a breastfeeding counselor from the link http://www.breastfeeding123.com/does-eating-spicy-food-make-mothers-milk-spicy/
Here is what she wrote:
With my kitchen torn apart for a redecorating project, I indulged in a lot of take-out food recently. That meant yummy Thai, Mexican and Chinese food. I enjoyed a tantalizing array of flavorful food, but when I bit into a particularly spicy chile relleno (stuffed pepper) the other night, it occurred to me to wonder whether the spicy foods I enjoyed made my breast milk spicy.
In fact, spices in a mother’s food do flavor the breast milk. Does that mean that nursing mothers should avoid garlic and spicy foods in favor of a bland diet? Absolutely not! The varied flavors of the milk may actually help breastfed children learn to enjoy a greater variety of table foods once they begin eating solids. In observation of my own two nurslings, I’ve found that to be true.
However, nursing mothers know their babies best and they may start to suspect a correlation between something they’ve eaten and fussiness in the baby. The Nursing Mother’s Companion says:
Some babies fuss for up to 24 hours after their mothers have eaten garlic, onions, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, chiles, or beans. Citrus fruits and their juices, chocolate, and spices such as chili powder, curry powder, and cinnamon can also bother young nursing babies.
p. 123. I have not found this to be true and have never had to restrict any foods while nursing. So, while nursing mothers need not eliminate foods arbitrarily, if a mother suspects her child is having a reaction to a particular food she ate, she can eliminate that food from her diet for a couple of weeks to see if the baby’s symptoms improve.
Anyway, this is just a source I found among other sources. People may have different opinion, but I found this article really make sense. SO.. the conclusion is, foods that nursing mothers should avoid are those which give bad flavor the breastmilk, according to the baby. Babies have appetite too :) Mothers should observe what they eat today and whether the babies like the taste of the breastmilk after mothers eating particular kind of food. I must remind that it is not an easy thing to do, coz what make a baby fusses is not only the taste of breastmilk, it can also be caused by the flow of the breastmilk (extreme forceful letdown causes baby to fuss too), and other causes that make a baby feel not comfortable (colic etc).
Happy observing!
This is a tricky issue because anecdotal evidence says one thing and professionals may say another! My experience has been that the taste of breastmilk probably isn't really the issue... What might be of more concern is the trace amounts of food proteins that enter the milk and possibly cause irritation to the baby. I know that my daughter isn't too fond of chilli simply because she tends to regurgitate a lot more if I've been eating hot and spicy foods. This effect has lessened over time though and now that she's older it's barely noticable.
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