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Correlation with mom eating peppers/spicy foods while pregnant and baby having acid reflux?
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Anonymous
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I am due to give birth in a month. I was ordering a sandwich with jalapenos, and a lovely Mexican mom (of 5 children) making my sandwich told me to stop eating jalapenos and other spicy foods, because it can cause the baby to have acid reflux. The idea is that the baby is "eating" these same foods now in utero, and the acid will aggravate the baby's digestive track and may lead to reflux when the baby is born.
I haven't heard this, but she seemed certain and it has some inituitive sense. Has anyone heard this, or do any moms of babies with reflux (looking back now) think this may be an issue? I know it's totally anecdotal and speculative, but I'm still curious. Now I'm paranoid to eat jalapenos, banana peppers, etc.! *Btw, I only identified the Mom as Mexican because many Latino cultures eat peppers and other spicy foods in abundance, so I figured she may have good experience to base her views on! |
Anonymous
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My child had horrible reflux and I didn't eat any spicy foods while pregnant. I have zero tolerance for anything hot and just avoid it. My child was on two meds for reflux before we got it under control. Can't say hot stuff caused it in my baby because I didn't eat it.
Many many many cultures have wives tales on these things. I would say there is a small chance this is true given in India preggo moms eat tons of spicy foods and the occurrence of reflux there is small. This was told to me by our Indian Ped. friend. |
Anonymous
| Sounds like an old wive's tale to me. |
Anonymous
| I am originally from El Salvador and ALL of the women in my family (including myself) have eaten very spicey foods throughout our pregnancies. None of the children have had any reflux problems. I can't think of any of my friend's children who have reflux, either (from E.S.) I would not worry about it one bit. I think it is an old wives tale, too! |
Anonymous
| I have the same response as 18:31, except that BOTH of my kids had reflux and went on medications, etc. I'm betting on genetics. Not only do I not normally eat spicy, but when I was pregnant I practically lived on bland dairy because of my own indigestion (ok, I will not now ask who you all think might have contributed the genes!). |
zumbamama
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| I LOVE super spicy food. No acid reflux with mine. |
Anonymous
| I agree with PPs. I hate a lot of VERY spicy indian & other asian food and my baby had NO reflux probs at all. |
Anonymous
| Lots of spicy food here too and no reflux for my baby! |
Anonymous
| Based on what people are saying here, it sounds like the other way around! Maybe eating spicy foods while pregnant helps your baby adjust so that he/she isn't bothered by foods and acid after birth? |
Anonymous
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I loved spicy stuff while pregnant (and later while nursing). Not only did our son never struggle with any sort of reflux, but he turned out to have quite an adventuresome palate himself. I'm guessing it had a lot to do with the flavors in my amniotic fluid and milk -- they were familiar and thus tasty.
Think of all the places around the world where the standard home cookin' involves some sort of pepper, curry powder, ginger, garlic, or all of the above. If your advisor was correct, that would be a huge chunk of the planet walking around with the economy-sized bottles of Tums. |
Anonymous
| DS had horrible reflux and although I normally love spicy food, especially Indian, I couldn't stand it during preg so I never ate it. Can't stand ethnic food this time around either, which is driving my husband crazy b/c it used to be all we ate. |
Anonymous
| Reflux usually occurs b/c the baby's gastroesophegal sphincter (the valve at the lower end of the foodpipe that governs entry into and out of the stomach) is not totally developed yet - food goes both ways instead of just one way. Acid reflux occurs when the stomach acid returns through the esophagus. There are some babies (and some grown people) who may have overactive acid production, which causes the "burn" and discomfort. Most babies' valves develop sufficiently by one year old and thus the problem disappears of its own accord. It is mostly mechanical and, so far as I have heard (our son has pretty severe acid reflux), there is no known correlation to ingestion of spicy foods during pregnancy. |
Anonymous
| OP here - thank you all for responding. My cravings for peppers will continue! |
Anonymous
| Also note that what you (mom) eat does not pass through your fetus's digestive tract. The fetus is getting stuff straight from your body via the umbilical cord. Once the baby is born and starts eating (nursing) on his/her own, the digestive tract gets going with that oh-so-lovely meconium poop! So yeah, I get a big old wives' tale vibe here. Munch away on those peppers! |