diff --git a/packages/beacon-node/src/network/gossip/gossipsub.ts b/packages/beacon-node/src/network/gossip/gossipsub.ts
index e6977abe8ce..5eca9540141 100644
--- a/packages/beacon-node/src/network/gossip/gossipsub.ts
+++ b/packages/beacon-node/src/network/gossip/gossipsub.ts
@@ -136,6 +136,10 @@ export class Eth2Gossipsub extends GossipSub {
       // if this is false, only publish to mesh peers. If there is not enough GOSSIP_D mesh peers,
       // publish to some more topic peers to make sure we always publish to at least GOSSIP_D peers
       floodPublish: !opts?.disableFloodPublish,
+      // Only send IDONTWANT messages if the message size is larger than this
+      // This should be large enough to not send IDONTWANT for "small" messages
+      // See https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/pull/7077#issuecomment-2383679472
+      idontwantMinDataSize: 16829,
     });
     this.scoreParams = scoreParams;
     this.config = config;