CLAIM:
A breastfeeding mother’s diet, including sour or sweet foods, does not spoil breast milk or cause vomiting in babies. Breast milk remains safe and nutritionally balanced regardless of normal dietary variations, and infant spit-up is usually a normal part of development, not linked to the mother’s food choices.
FACT:
Scientific evidence shows that breast milk composition is tightly regulated by the body and does not become spoiled, acidic, or harmful based on a normal maternal diet, including sour or sweet foods. Studies confirm that infant spit-up is common due to immature digestive systems and normal stomach acid activity, not because of what the breastfeeding mother eats. Only in rare cases, such as true food allergies, may maternal diet affect the baby.
In a viral Instagram reel posted by Dr Madhavi Bharadwaj, a paediatrician with over 1.6 million followers known as ‘bacchon_ki_doctor’, she addresses widespread myths linking a breastfeeding mother’s diet to vomiting in babies.
In the reel, which has gained over 1.4 million views, 54.8k likes, and 12.1k shares, Dr Bharadwaj explains that sour foods eaten by the mother do not spoil breast milk or harm the baby.
She recounts a concern shared by caregivers who blamed the baby’s vomiting on the mother eating pickles and oranges. They believed that “if something sour is added to milk, the milk bursts, so the mother’s milk must also have become like that,” causing the baby to vomit.
Rejecting this, Dr Bharadwaj explains that food does not directly pass unchanged into breast milk. “Is the mother a milk packet? If she eats oranges, it will go into her stomach, get digested, absorbed, and mixed in the blood. Those are vitamin C molecules,” she says.
She clarifies that breast milk is produced from nutrients circulating in the blood, not from undigested food itself.
She also explains that milk naturally encounters acid inside the baby’s stomach. “When the mother’s milk reaches the baby’s stomach, there is already hydrochloric acid present there. That acid helps digest milk. So the idea that sour foods will make the milk burst has no meaning,” she says.
Dr Bharadwaj further explains that vomiting or spit-up is common in young infants due to their developing digestive system and physical movements. “A three-month-old baby stretches, laughs, or tries to sit. This creates pressure on the stomach, and milk can come out. This is normal,” she says.
She also addresses a misconception where caregivers placed breast milk in a tulsi plant and assumed the mother’s diet had spoiled the milk when the plant dried up. She explains that breast milk contains essential minerals like calcium and sodium required for the baby’s bone and tissue development. “Mother’s milk is gold. Its mineral content is meant for the baby’s growth,” she says, adding that such comparisons have no scientific basis.
Dr Bharadwaj also clarified that dietary restrictions are only necessary if the mother herself has a medical issue. “If a mother has acidity, throat irritation, or inflammation, then she should be careful with acidic foods because it can worsen her own symptoms,” she explains.
However, she emphasises that this precaution is for the mother’s comfort, not because such foods harm breast milk or the baby. If the mother is healthy and has no such problems, she can eat a normal, balanced diet that includes a variety of foods.
Reassuring families, she dismissed fears that specific foods can alter the basic nature of breast milk. “Even if a mother eats sweets like gulab jamun, the milk does not suddenly become excessively sweet. And if she eats sour foods, the milk will not ‘burst’ or spoil,” she says.
“Please think about the mother's healthy diet and mental well-being,” she stresses.
Can your diet while breastfeeding make your baby throw up?
Scientific evidence consistently shows that breast milk composition is biologically regulated and is not “spoiled” or made harmful by a mother eating sour, sweet, or specific foods.
A 2016 systematic review analysed 36 studies involving 1,977 lactating women, examined how maternal diet affects breast milk composition. The researchers found that while certain nutrients in milk, such as fatty acids or vitamin C, can reflect maternal intake to some extent, the overall composition of breast milk remains stable and tightly regulated.
“The available information on this topic is scarce and diverse. Most of the evidence currently used in clinical practice to make recommendations is limited to studies that only reported indirect associations,” the authors noted.
Importantly, the review did not find evidence suggesting that maternal consumption of sour or specific foods makes breast milk harmful or causes vomiting in infants.
Further supporting this, another study examining vitamin C levels in breast milk found that vitamin transfer into milk is carefully controlled by the body. Researchers measured vitamin C levels in 97 breastfeeding mothers and found that although maternal intake influenced vitamin C levels to some degree, breast milk concentrations remained within a regulated range.
“Vitamin C excretion into breast milk is regulated to prevent exceeding saturation level,” the study concluded. This demonstrates that even when mothers consume acidic foods rich in vitamin C, breast milk maintains physiological balance and does not become excessively acidic or unsafe.
In addition, research published in 2018 investigating the digestion of human milk in preterm infants confirmed that babies’ stomachs are naturally equipped to break down breast milk using gastric acids and digestive enzymes. The study found that protein breakdown increased progressively during digestion, showing that infant digestive systems actively process breast milk.
The researchers observed, “We demonstrated that the preterm infant stomach actively degrades milk proteins with increasing breakdown over digestion time.”
This highlights that milk digestion, including exposure to stomach acid, is a normal biological process and unrelated to the mother’s diet.
Another observational study examining vitamin content in breast milk and infant development found that breast milk naturally adapts to support infant growth, with nutrient levels varying according to lactation stage and infant needs rather than maternal food choices alone. The study concluded that breast milk provides essential developmental nutrients and supports infant growth during early life.
Medical institutions also emphasise that maternal diet rarely causes digestive problems in breastfed babies. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, “For a majority of people, what you eat is not going to make your baby feel bad.”
The institution explains that while breast milk may slightly change flavour depending on maternal diet, it does not become harmful. Only a small percentage, about 3% of exclusively breastfed babies, may have food sensitivities, most commonly to dairy proteins.
This story is done in collaboration with First Check, which is the health journalism vertical of DataLEADS.