Can breastfeeding babies have asparagus pee?

[iNow]

Okay folks... please bear with me here... I needed a lighter topic (with all of the US government shutdown and debt ceiling talk nonsense), so am posting this rather silly question, but one to which I'm genuinely curious to know the answer.

 

I've read what triggers the scent of asparagus pee, and how certain sulphur compounds are created when asparagusic acid gets broken down.

 

I've also learned how 1) for some people there will be no detectable change in the scent of their urine after eating asparagus, 2) some people's pee smells after eating asparagus, but through some gift of fate they happen to lack the olfactory configuration to detect that smell, and 3) the rest of us who upon merely reading the word "asparagus" in a book have the scent of our urine change... folks like me who take one bite, have barely yet swallowed, and within 23.7 seconds it's already detectable in our urine.

 

Here's my question, though.

 

If a mother is breastfeeding an infant child and ingests asparagus, would the urine of the infant ever change scent? Is it possible? Likely? Improbable? Can babies have "asparagus pee" if only the mother has ingested it and their sole source of sustenance is breast milk?

[Tridimity]

The substrate for production of the volatile odorant, or the odorant itself, derived from asparagus would need to be transmitted to the baby via the mother's breastmilk. I think this unlikely but it may be possible. There is still uncertainty as to the causal agent, although a number of volatile compounds have been proposed as sources of the perceived odor:

 

Proposed odorants found in asparagus urine

Compound Reference Methanethiola Nencki (1891) Methanethiol Allison and McWhirter (1956) Methanethiol Waring et al. (1987) Methanethiol Leitner (2001) 1-Propene-3-isothiocyante Leitner (2001) 3-Methylthiophene Leitner (2001) Bis-(methythio)methane Waring et al. (1987) Carbon disulfide Leitner (2001) Carbon oxide sulfide Leitner (2001) Dimethyl disulfide Waring et al. (1987) Dimethyl disulfide Leitner (2001) Dimethyl sulfide Leitner (2001) Dimethyl sulfide Waring et al. (1987) Dimethyl sulfone Stevens (2007) Dimethyl sulfone Waring et al. (1987) Dimethyl sulfoxide Waring et al. (1987) Dimethyl trisulfide Stevens (2007) Dimethyl trisulfide White (1975) E-methylthio-1-propene Leitner (2001) Hydrogensulfide Leitner (2001) Methylpropylsulfide Leitner (2001) S-methyl-2-propenthioate Leitner (2001) S-methyl-2-propenethioate Stevens (2007) S-methyl-3-(methylthio)thiopropionate White (1975) S-methyl-thioacrylate White (1975) Tetrahydrothiophene White (1975) Methanesulfonic anhydride Stevens (2007) Butyrolactone Stevens (2007) 1,4-bis(methythio)-butane Stevens (2007)

 

aAlso known as methyl mercaptan. 1,2-Dithiolane-4-carboxylic acid (asparagusic acid) is found in asparagus and may be the precursor to some of the sulfur metabolites listed above (Jansen 1948). The most common odorant detected in asparagus urine is methanethiol, listed at the top, followed by the other odorants in alphanumerical order.

 

 

 

Pelchate ML, Bykowski C, Duke FF & Reed DR (2010) Excretion and Perception of a Characteristic Odor in Urine after Asparagus Ingestion: a Psychophysical and Genetic Study. Chem Senses 36(1): 9-17

If the odor bothers you, look into acquiring the SNP within olfactory receptors (rs4481887) in order to ameliorate your capacity to detect the odor - or ask your wife to stop eating asparagus

There is some debate as to whether a different type of asparagus, Asparagus racemosus, may promote lactation as a galactagogue - but there does not seem to be much supporting evidence for this claim in the literature - although, more related to your question, volatile organic compounds can be transmitted from mother to baby via the breast milk, so perhaps transmission of the odor-causing compound or its precusrsor is not so unlikely:

 

Herbal

Herbals and foods used as galactogogues have little or no scientific evidence of efficacy and the identity and purity of herbals are concerns because of inadequate testing requirements.^[12][13] The herbals most commonly cited as galactagogues are:^[13]

• Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus)^[13]

Herbal galactogogues are divided into those believed to also have a sedating action on the nursing infant due to their volatile constituents, which can be carried through the breast milk itself, and those seen as promoting milk production without directly affecting the content. This often seems to be linked to anethol content.^[18]

 

 

Wiki

 

Sharma S, et al. Randomized controlled trial of Asparagus racemosus(Shatavari) as a lactogogue in lactational inadequacy.²⁷

Women with uncomplicated term delivery and who reported lactational inadequacy during 14-90 days postpartum were recruited for this multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-arm study of shatavari. Lactation inadequacy was defined either as inability to regain infant’s birth weight at 15 days of life, or infant weight gain less than 15 g per day, or mother supplementing greater than 250 mL per day of milk 4 weeks after birth. All mothers diagnosed with lactation inadequacy were advised to exclusively breastfeed and were instructed on proper position and frequency of feeds, as well as maintenance of adequate rest and nutrition. Sixty-four mothers were enrolled and randomized 1:1 into treatment and placebo arms, and 11 mothers failed to complete the trial. The mothers were randomized to receive either 2 teaspoons twice daily of a 100-g mixture containing 15% shatavari by weight for 4 weeks (n = 32), or a physically indistinguishable placebo mixture (n = 32). Adherence was not explicitly reported, although the authors reported that 26 mothers in the treatment arm and 23 mothers in the placebo arm offered supplementary feeding during the study.

The primary outcome was change in serum prolactin level. Additional outcomes were infant weight gain and change in volume and frequency of supplementary feedings. Maternal characteristics at baseline were comparable. Median prolactin level after treatment was 25 ng/mL for the treatment arm and 38 ng/mL for the placebo arm. Although no results of statistical significance testing are reported, these levels were deemed comparable by the researchers. Infant weight gain after therapy for the treatment arm was 30 g/d versus 26 g/d for the placebo arm. These levels were reported as comparable. The researchers concluded that shatavari did not have any effect on milk production.

 

^Mortel M Mehta SD (2013) Systematic Review of the Efficacy of Herbal Galactogogues. Journal of Human Lactation doi:10.1177/0890334413477243

 

Abstract

The present study was conducted to optimize methods for measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by use of headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and to provide a preliminary assessment of levels in human milk. MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether), chloroform, benzene, and toluene were measured from two sources of milk: a North Carolina milk bank (n = 5) and multiple samples from three women within nonsmoking households in inner-city Baltimore, MD (n = 8). In Baltimore, indoor air VOC concentrations in the respective households were also measured by active sampling and thermal desorption gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in selective ion monitoring (GC/MS/SIM) over each of the 3 days of milk collection. By application of these optimized methods, we observed median VOC concentrations in Baltimore human milk of 0.09, 0.55, 0.12, and 0.46 ng/mL for MTBE, chloroform, benzene, and toluene, respectively. For benzene, toluene, and MTBE, milk levels trended with observed indoor air concentrations. On the basis of measured concentrations in air and milk, infant average daily dose by inhalation exceeded ingestion rates by 25-135-fold. Thus, VOC exposure from breast milk is vastly exceeded by that from indoor air in nonsmoking households. Accordingly, strategies to mitigate infant VOC exposure should focus on the indoor air inhalation pathway of exposure.

Kim SR, Halden RU & Buckley TJ (2007) Volatile organic compounds in human milk: methods and measurements. Environ Sci Technol 41(5):1662-7

 

Edited October 16, 2013 by Tridimity

[iNow]

Thanks, Trid. So, it appears that some of the compounds do come through the milk, but would that be enough to change the scent of the infants urine?