Breastfeeding a sick baby is fantastic for feeding and comfort. In this post we’re jumping into breastfeeding when baby is sick, “can breastfeeding while pregnant make baby sick?,” how breast milk changes when baby is sick, what to eat when breastfeeding sick baby, and more!
How Breastfeeding Sick Baby Helps
Every time your baby is breastfeeding, there is an intertwining of the maternal and infant immune system. With each suck and swallow, there is some backwash from your baby’s saliva that goes into your breast.
In the breast with the fat tissue around the alveoli there are some lymphatic cells. At the breast, these lymphatic cells recognize the pathogens that your baby is sick with or even has only been exposed to (possibly earlier in the day from another person), and at a local level these lymphocytes make specific antibodies to that pathogen, and they transfer those antibodies back into the breast milk.
With your baby’s next feeding, your baby will receive these antibodies. So, this response to your baby’s contact with a pathogen happens within 3-5 hours of that contact and it continues and repeats with every feeding at the breast. This is specific target therapy.
The lymphocytes, which are a type of white blood cell, will resume back to normal levels by 2 weeks after the resolution of the pathology [1].
Does Breast Milk Increase Mucus Production?
Firstly, there is actually no scientific evidence that cow’s milk results in the production of more mucus unless you are allergic to dairy products. But, good news! If it does, your breast milk is still not a diary product. So, even if dairy is a problem, your breast milk should not be.
Breast Milk When Baby is Sick
When your baby is sick and you breastfeed, your breastmilk changes in color and in composition to help your baby get better quickly and better avoid the sickness becoming severe.
Breast milk when your baby is sick has those specific antibodies that your breasts made for your baby through that maternal and infant immune communication that we just talked about.
When your baby is sick, your breast milk overall resembles colostrum or transitional breast milk more than mature breast milk [1].
Check out: The Breastfeeding Sick Mom Survival Guide
What is colostrum?
When your baby is a newborn, the first stage of breast milk is called colostrum. Colostrum lasts for the first 1-3 days and is a golden color, extra rich in vitamins including vitamin A, E and B8. Further, colostrum is also rich in proteins, remarkably high numbers of antibodies (infection fighters), minerals including zinc, and peptides (antibacterial and antiviral).
Additionally, colostrum contains growth hormones that help repair damaged cells and human milk oligosaccharides. Plus, colostrum establishes the proper balance of probiotics (healthy bacteria) in your baby’s digestive tract which can provide them with long-term gut health benefits.
increased Vitamin A in Breast milk:
The golden color of colostrum is due to the high levels of beta-carotene (vitamin A). Compared to cow’s milk, colostrum has 151 µg of vitamin A and cow’s milk has only 41 µg. While mature breast milk contains 75 µg of vitamin A.
There are two categories of vitamin A: Retinol and Carotenoid. Retinol is from animal sources like liver, whole milk, and eggs. Carotenoids are a pro-vitamin found in yellow and green vegetables like carrots, onions, peas, spinach, squash, and fruits.
Vitamin A is needed for good eye health and vision, immune system, and maintenance of epithelial structures (healthy skin and mucous membranes).
Increased vitamin e in breast milk:
Compared to cows milk, colostrum contains 1.5 µg of vitamin E and cows milk only has 0.07 µg. While mature breast milk contains 0.25 µg of vitamin E
Vitamin E is an antioxidant that protects cell membranes from oxidation. It is also required for muscle integrity and resistance of red blood cells to hemolysis. Deficiency of vitamin E in infancy can lead to hemolytic anemia, especially in premature infants.
Increased zinc in breast milk:
Zinc is 8x more abundant in colostrum than in mature breastmilk. Research has found that zinc may effectively reduce inflammation, boost immune health, and fight viruses and bacteria, reduce your risk of age-related diseases, and speed wound healing.
human milk oligosaccharides:
Human milk oligosaccharides are carbohydrates highly abundant and unique to human breast milk. These carbohydrates are a prebiotic, serve as decoy receptors that prevent pathogens (viruses, bacteria, or parasites) from attaching to infant mucosal surfaces.
Human milk oligosaccharides also work with good bacteria by participating in the production of sialic acid, an essential nutrient for brain development and cognition.
So when your baby is sick, your breast milk will resort to turning more like the colostrum you had when your baby was a newborn! As you can see, all these vitamins, minerals, and other components are beneficial for helping your baby recover and prevent the sickness from becoming severe.
What to Eat When Breastfeeding Sick Baby
Your intake of vitamin and minerals can improve the levels of these components present in your breast milk. Therefore, ensuring you are getting enough vitamin A, C, E, and zinc could further benefit your baby getting better sooner prevent the sickness from becoming severe or even more severe.
Breast milk is made from your blood. Our macronutrient intake doesn’t change components of our blood, but our vitamin and mineral intake does, so this is why these are better to focus on if you’re looking for extra good foods to eat when you’re breastfeeding a sick baby.
To learn more about how your diet does and does not affect your breast milk, check out: Does Your Diet Really Affect Your Breastmilk Quality and Supply?
Still, ensuring you are satiated and hydrated is essential for having the energy to continue breastfeeding on demand and doing all the other things to care for your sick baby. Such as using a suction, saline wipes or saline mist, and a natural baby chest and nose rub to assist in relieving your baby’s congestion. Additionally, comforting your baby through breastfeeding and babywearing, re-filling the humidifier, gently patting in-between your baby’s shoulder blades to help break up their mucous, and even sitting in a steamy bathroom with hot water running while patting their back to further help break up their mucous and relieve their congestion by helping it all come out.
When congestion and mucous does not come out, this is when a painful and miserable sinus infection can manifest from a simple cold.
Check out The Complete Guide to Your Baby’s First Cold here for more tips on how to get through and most effectively help your baby through their first cold.
Where Should My Breastfeeding Sick Baby Sleep?
Regardless of if your baby is sick or not, having your baby sleeping in the same bedroom as you for at least the first 6-12 months of their life is safest. They will likely sleep the best the closer they are to you because we have survived and evolved as humans to feel safe from danger when we are together. Furthermore, you’re the only person they know and feel safe with, you are their source of food, and even temperature regulation early in their life!
By your baby sleeping in the same room, you can more easily help them in the middle of the night, breastfeed, go back sleep sooner, and monitor their wellbeing.
If you are a fully breastfeeding mother interested in the truth about sleeping in the same bed with your baby, check out: The Truth About Breastfeeding and Bedsharing.
It’s important for you and your baby to stay together and breastfeed day and night for:
- Better milk production
- Better mental health
- Easier for you
- Better for your baby, as milk storage can deplete some protective components of breast milk
If you need guidance on your milk supply, using a breast pump, milk storage, and other baby hurdles such as baby sleep, how to know if your baby is getting enough breast milk, nursing and pumping schedules, and so much more, check out The Balanced Breastfeeding Course!
This course has 280 Minutes of Education, Including Video Demonstrations and 160+ Easy to Follow PDF Pages with Photo Demonstrations. Check out The Balanced Breastfeeding Course!
Will Breastfeeding Prevent My Baby From Getting Sick?
Breastfeeding doesn’t entirely prevent your baby from getting sick, but it does reduce your baby’s chances of getting sick and reduces the likelihood of the sickness becoming severe.
See the section on “How Breastfeeding Helps Sick Baby” above in case you missed it!
Plus, don’t forget to check out: The Breastfeeding Sick Mom Survival Guide
Nursing Positions for Breastfeeding Sick Baby
When your baby is sick and congested, try to keep your baby as upright as possible while breastfeeding. Utilize pillows and nursing semi-upright.
Some helpful breastfeeding positions include laid-back nursing, Australian position (where you are laying flat, “down under” your baby, tummy to tummy), and koala hold.
If you’re using a bottle, ensure you always practice paced-bottle feeding, whether your baby is sick or not!
Paced-bottle feeding allows your baby to have some more control over the feeding and ensures they have time to breathe and stop when they are full. When your baby is under 3 months old of age, their suck reflex is involuntary. Therefore, bottle feeding without using paced bottle-feeding methods can lead to your baby being overfed which also means you’re going through more of your breast milk storage more quickly than you would have otherwise needed to.
What If My Baby Refuses to Breastfeed When Sick?
It is common for babies to feed less when they are sick. Especially if they have a sore throat or pressure from an ear infection making feeding a bit painful for your baby.
If this happens, try different nursing positions, but do not force feed your baby. Trying to force them can create a stressful association with feeding and worsen their feeding refusal, even if they start to get better!
More methods that might help if feeding is uncomfortable for your sick baby include:
- Slowly feeding your baby expressed milk from a cup, spoon, or syringe
- Making milksicles for your baby to eat while providing cool relief
- If your baby is 6 months or older, you can add breast milk to solids that sometimes eat like to their oatmeal, or you can try making yogurt from your breast milk!
Pedialyte Infant vs. Breast Milk
Breastfeeding mothers are sometimes told to discontinue or reduce breastfeeding to substitute it with an oral rehydration therapy such as Pedialyte. However, research has found this outdated practice doesn’t have any benefits to the breastfed baby and can even prolong recovery!
Your breast milk has 4 things that your baby needs when they are sick, including:
- Antibodies. Through breastfeeding your breast milk provides specific antibodies to fight the pathogen your baby has or has been exposed to.
- Hydration. Breast milk keeps your baby hydrated. A sick baby is more likely to nurse than ingest anything else by mouth, and that is okay because it can offer everything most babies will need while they are sick.
- Bioavailable nutrients. Breast milk is quickly and easily digested. “Bioavailable” means that most of the vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients are absorbed by your baby rather than wasted which is amazing!
- For example, formula contains much higher amounts of iron than breast milk. Breast milk only contains small amounts of iron, but breastfed babies are rarely iron deficient. This is likely because there are high amount of lactose and vitamin C in human milk, which both help with iron absorption, therefore, the iron in breast milk is extremely bioavailable for your baby. In fact, iron in breastmilk is absorbed 5x as well as a similar amount from cow’s milk [2]. And having any extra iron in your system actually feeds pathogens as they need iron to grow and multiple. Therefore, having too much iron is bad your baby.
- Similarly, calcium is found in only small quantities in breast milk, however absorption is greater compared to cow’s milk (67% of calcium is absorbed from breast milk and 25% is absorbed from cow’s milk).
- Comfort. When your baby is sick, they need more comfort. Breastfeeding not only provides nutrition, but it is a way to simultaneously provide nutrition, hydration, and comfort all in one for your baby.
Can Breastfeeding While Pregnant Make Baby Sick?
There is no evidence that breastfeeding is harmful during pregnancy. Additionally, there is no concern about breastfeeding “taking away” nutrients from your baby in-utero, or vice-versa.
Remember, breast milk is made from your blood, so any vitamins and minerals that you ingest are in your circulatory system and distributing throughout your body.
Ensure you’re ingesting enough of all vitamins and minerals based on the daily recommendations for pregnant women and there is nothing else to worry about regarding providing enough nutrients for your breastfed child and your baby in-utero.
I recommend taking a prenatal vitamin while also striving to get enough of all these vitamins and minerals from whole food sources as these would be the most beneficial!
If you’re concerned about if breastfeeding while pregnant may induce preterm labor, check out: Nipple Stimulation for Labor Induction.
Things to Watch For Breastfeeding Sick Baby:
Watch for signs of dehydration, trouble breathing, rashes, changes in behavior, and pain.
If baby is showing signs of dehydration, talk to your baby’s pediatric practitioner.
Signs of dehydration:
- Fewer than 2 wet diapers in a 24-hour period
- Baby not behaving normally (more irritable, less active, sleeping more)
- Lethargy
- Listlessness
- Weak cry
- No tears (in an infant older than 3 months)
- Dry mouth
- Skin that stays wrinkly-looking when pinched (pull up the skin on the front of the hand; it should pop easily back into place – not stay pinched or wrinkly-looking)
- Sunken eyes
- Cool, clammy extremities, especially the fingers and toes
- Fast breathing, or a heart that is beating faster than usual
- Fever
If your baby has vomiting or diarrhea:
- Prioritize breast milk over any other solids or liquids
- Always offer the breast or breast milk, but never force it
- Always allow your baby to comfort nurse (It is rare for a baby who is allowed to breastfeed at will during a vomiting or diarrhea illness become dehydrated; babywearing can help make this easier for you)
Additionally, contact a pediatric practitioner about any medications (even herbal ones) before giving any to your baby.
Questions or Comments?
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below👇🏻
Talk soon, mama!
– Katelyn Lauren
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References:
[1] Riskin, A., Almog, M., Peri, R., Halasz, K., Srugo, I., & Kessel, A. (2012). Changes in immunomodulatory constituents of human milk in response to active infection in the nursing infant. Pediatric research, 71(2), 220–225. https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2011.34
[2] Oski F. A. (1993). Iron deficiency in infancy and childhood. The New England journal of medicine, 329(3), 190–193. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199307153290308
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