Can I get some relief by changing my diet?
The most effective way to reduce gas may be to cut back on the foods that are most likely to cause it. But if you eliminated everything that might cause gas, it would be hard to eat a balanced diet.
So start by cutting out the most likely culprits, and if that gives you relief, begin adding those foods back into your diet one by one to try to pinpoint what's causing the problem for you. Keeping a food diary can help you see the relationship between eating certain foods and having more gas.
Beans, whole grains, and certain vegetables – such as cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and asparagus – are common offenders. They contain the sugar raffinose, which makes a lot of people gassy.
Some people have trouble if they have too much fructose, a sugar present in various foods. A relatively high amount of naturally occurring fructose is present in leeks, onions and scallions, artichokes, dried fruit, pears, apples, honey, and wheat.
Many sodas and fruit drinks are sweetened with a form of fructose called high fructose corn syrup. (It's a good idea to avoid sodas and fruit drinks anyway because they're empty calories and the carbonation in sodas can contribute to bloating.) Many processed foods are also made with high fructose corn syrup.
Certain starches (such as wheat, corn, and potatoes, but not rice) can cause gas for some people. And certain fiber-rich foods (such as oat bran, beans, peas, and many kinds of fruit) cause gas because they're normally broken down in the large intestine.
Wheat bran, on the other hand, basically passes through your digestive system without getting broken down. This makes wheat bran a good choice if you have constipation and need more fiber but also suffer from flatulence.
People who are lactose intolerant will find that dairy products give them gas. If you're highly lactose intolerant, you probably knew this before you got pregnant, since dairy may give you diarrhea and abdominal pain.
If you're only somewhat lactose intolerant and haven't been aware of dairy having any effect on you, a dramatic boost in your consumption of dairy products during pregnancy may cause you some distress. To avoid this problem, look for lactose-free milk or calcium-fortified soy milk in your supermarket. (If you aren't drinking any kind of milk, you'll probably need to take a calcium supplement.)
Finally, try to steer clear of high-fat and fried foods.