The pervasive myth of the breastfeeding diet and gassy babies

If you've ever attempted to breastfeed, then you know that you should avoid eating certain foods because they may give your baby gas, and we all know that gassy babies are often unhappy babies, and unhappy babies make for exhausted parents.  You will have heard this recommendation from your peers, but probably also from a "reputable" source, like the lactation consultant at the hospital, or a doctor, at at the very least from an infinite pool of online resources.  It's a bit disappointing after 9 months of avoiding alcohol and deli meats to still be deprived of certain foods, but it seems like a small price to pay for a happier baby.

The only problem is that it's all complete nonsense.
The foods that make you gassy will not, can not, make your baby gassy.  Think about it.  The reason high fiber veggies, like broccoli, cabbage and the most magical of all, beans, give you gas, is because they contain large volumes of matter that you cannot digest.  When that undigested matter arrives at the colon, your friendly, neighborhood bowel bacteria ferment them and make gas.  I think that most of us have at least a basic understanding of this.  So why is that the we all accept without question that these same gassy foods somehow give our breastfed baby gas?  The very fact of their being "indigestible" means that the gas-causing components of these foods never enters our bloodstream and, if it never enters our blood, it certainly is never incorporated into our breast milk. 

So, ladies, I would encourage you to ignore that nonsense and eat all the beans, cabbage, onions and broccoli that you like.  Your baby's gassiness is most likely the natural consequence of an immature immune system.  If you're convinced that there is truly a problem, you can explore the unlikely possibilities of foremilk/hindmilk imabalance or the even more unlikely possibility of a food allergy...  But my bet is that there's nothing wrong and your baby's gassiness, and the consistency of his poops*, are both entirely normal.  

Me with the twins on my breastfeeding pillow, content in
the knowledge that my diet has nothing to do with their
hilarious baby farts (Because baby farts are hilarious.  Don't
 believe me?  Try listening to a baby fart without smiling.
  You can't do it.  Because baby farts are hilarious).

Liam and Eva in a post-nursing coma.

*Having twins has allowed my husband I to observe the range of "normal" for breastfed infant poop.  Liam and Eva eat exactly the same diet and have wildly different bowel habit.  Eva produces at least 5 loud, wet, sometimes stringy, sometimes greenish but usually bright orange, poops a day.  Liam, on the other hand, poops only once every 2 to 3 days.  As you would expect given their infrequency, his bowel movements are much greater in scope, so great that Lee and I enjoy coming up with creative names to document them in our feeding notebook (a necessity for keeping track of twins).  Examples include: Poosplosion, Niagara Poos, and Pooposaurus Rex.  My point in all this, however, is that Liam with his thrice weekly ginormous poo deposits and Eva with her many times daily projectile poo sprays, are both perfectly healthy, normal newborns.