21/10/2025
🌿 Thinking About Cutting Dairy While Breastfeeding? Here’s Why You Might Not Need To.
It’s so common to hear “try cutting dairy” when your baby seems fussy, “windy”, or unsettled. 🥛🧀
But before you start eliminating foods, it’s worth knowing what the latest research actually says.
🌸 The research says exposure, not elimination, builds tolerance
🔬Immunology research (Verhasselt 2024) shows that breast milk doesn’t just nourish, it actively educates the infant’s immune system, helping them learn tolerance to foods.
🌏The World Allergy Organization’s DRACMA guidelines (2023) make it clear that breastfeeding should continue wherever possible. Maternal elimination should only be considered when there’s a strong clinical reason and always reintroduced to confirm diagnosis.
💛 Perth-led research from The Kids Research Institute Australia found babies who had exclusive colostrum in the first 72 hours were about five times less likely to develop peanut allergy later in life and eleven times less likely to develop multiple food allergies (like egg or cow’s milk). Plus NO peanut allergies in any of the babies who had at least 9 feeds of colostrum per 24 hours in the first 72 hours
🥜 The upcoming “Nuts for Babies” trial is even testing whether mums eating more nuts during breastfeeding can reduce infant nut allergy, showing that exposure, not elimination, helps babies build tolerance.
🤱We also know that cutting foods unnecessarily can lead to nutritional deficiencies, reduced milk supply, and added stress around eating (Gelsomino et al., 2024; Munblit et al., 2020).
🤔If science is studying how more exposure might prevent allergy, we should be cautious about cutting foods without a proven need.
In short: your milk doesn’t just feed your baby, it teaches their immune system what’s safe. 🌿
💗 What to do instead
Most unsettled baby behaviours are not caused by food allergy. True cow’s-milk protein allergy (CMPA) is real — but rare — and usually mild and short-lived.
💫 The dialled-up baby explained
What’s much more common are behaviours linked to an immature nervous system, what we call a “dialled-up baby” in the Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC) approach.
Babies are born with a nervous system that’s still very much under construction Their nerve pathways are only beginning to develop the protective myelin coating that helps signals travel efficiently between the body and brain. Until this process matures, those messages can get a little “noisy”, especially from the gut, so normal sensations might be interpreted by the baby’s brain as uncomfortable or even painful.
On top of this, a baby’s gut is highly responsive to their sympathetic nervous system, the part responsible for “fight, flight, or fuss.” When babies become upset or overstimulated, this system switches on and can make their gut more active. That extra activity can heighten sensations and add to their distress.
It’s really a perfect storm of immature wiring and heightened sensitivity, a developing nervous system asking for connection and co-regulation, not dietary restriction.
Often, what appears to be “allergy” or “intolerance” is simply the result of this developing nervous system, sometimes combined with underlying breastfeeding issues such as suboptimal fit and hold, positional stability, or milk transfer.
That’s why working with a holistic IBCLC or GP, especially one trained in NDC, can be so valuable. They can help calm the dialled-up baby’s system through feeding support, responsive care, and helping parents understand what’s normal for their baby’s stage of development.
🌼 Getting the Right Support
Before you start restricting your diet, reach out for support from a holistic IBCLC or GP trained in Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC).
An NDC health practitioner will help you look beneath the surface of your baby’s behaviour, understanding the biology of their developing brain, gut, and nervous system, and exploring how feeding, sleep, and sensory regulation all interconnect.
This approach focuses on supporting your baby’s regulation, not pathologising normal developmental behaviours, so you can feel confident your baby is thriving without unnecessary elimination diets or stress around feeding.
https://ndcinstitute.au/find-an-ndc-practitioner
✨ Save this post, or send it to a friend who’s thinking about cutting foods while breastfeeding. Let’s keep mums nourished and babies protected. 💕
📚 References
Bhasin M, Cooper M, Macchiaverni P, Joys R S, O’Sullivan T A, Keelan J A, Venter C, Palmer D J, Lowe A J, Prescott S L, Silva D, Verhasselt V. (2025). Colostrum as a protective factor against peanut allergy: Evidence from a birth cohort. Allergy, Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40968490.
Gelsomino M, Liotti L, Barni S. (2024). Elimination diets in lactating mothers of infants with food allergy. Nutrients, 16(14):2317. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16142317
McWilliam V, Netting M J, Volders E, et al. (2023). World Allergy Organization (WAO) diagnosis and rationale for action against cow’s milk allergy (DRACMA) guidelines update – X – Breastfeeding a baby with cow’s milk allergy. World Allergy Organization Journal, 16:100830.
Munblit D, Perkin M R, Palmer D, Allen K, Boyle R J. (2020). Assessment of evidence about common infant symptoms and cow’s milk allergy. JAMA Pediatrics, 174, 599-608.
Verhasselt V. (2024). A newborn’s perspective on immune responses to food. Immunological Reviews, 326, 117-129.
Additional context:
The Nuts for Babies randomised controlled trial is being conducted by The Kids Research Institute Australia and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) (Principal Investigator A/Prof Debra Palmer).
