How does being sick affect breast milk supply? What can help as a breastfeeding sick mom? If mom is sick while breastfeeding, will baby get sick? Do breastfeeding moms get sick more often? Keep reading to find out!
Should a Breastfeeding Sick Mom Continue Nursing?
Even when you’re sick you should continue breastfeeding your baby!
Actually… especially when you are sick you should breastfeed your baby!
Providing your baby with your breast milk while you’re sick will help prevent your baby from getting sick with the same thing, or at least make their sickness less severe.
It is very rare for a mom to need to stop breastfeeding for any illness. The only illnesses that may require a mom to stop breastfeeding for a period of time or permanently include HIV and HTLV-1.
Still, there are a great deal of circumstances where mothers with HIV who have it controlled with medications can continue breastfeeding safely.
Additionally, you can continue breastfeeding if you have food poisoning. As long as the symptoms are confimed to the gastrointestinal tract such as vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps, breaatfeeding should continue as normal and doesn’t have any risk for your baby.
However, if the food poisoning progresses to septicemia, meaning the bacteria has passed into your bloodstream, firstly you would need to be hospitalized and “in the rare circumstances when septicemia occurs and bacteria might reach the milk. Even in this event, continued breastfeeding while the mother receives appropriate antibiotic therapy that is compatible with breastfeeding is the safest course for the infant. If the infecting organism is especially virulent or contagious (e.g., an invasive group A streptococcal infection causing severe disease in the mother), breastfeeding should continue after a temporary suspension during the first 24 hours of maternal therapy. Prophylactic or empiric therapy for the infant, against the same organism, may be indicated.” [1].
Can a Breastfeeding Sick Mom Get Baby Sick?
Your baby will be exposed to what you’re sick with regardless of if you are breastfeeding or not.
Additional measures can be taken to help reduce the chances of your baby getting sick including washing your hands often and avoiding sneezing or coughing on your baby.
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.
So, your breast milk can help your baby by your baby’s immune system is communicating with yours from them being exposed to the same pathogen you have. Or, since your breast milk is made from your blood, your blood will have white blood cells that are fighting virus you have and releasing antibodies to halt spread of the pathogen and these components specific to your breast milk at this time will be passed to your baby to do the same.
Check out: Benefits of Breastfeeding Sick Baby
Whether you’re pumping or feed your baby from the breast when you’re together, this makes giving your baby fresh breastmilk extremely beneficial. The breast milk will have everything they need in it each day for optimal health.
Learn more about how your breast milk is made from your blood in: Does Your Diet Really Affect Your Breastmilk Quality and Supply?
What Can a Breastfeeding Sick Mom Do?
In addition to continuing to breastfeed for optimal health outcomes for both you and your baby, there are many methods of caring for your sickness that are compatible with breastfeeding!
In the balanced breastfeeding course, you have an entire chapter on medications, drugs, and breastfeeding. This chapter has all of the information you need on herbs, marijuana, CBD, alcohol, cigarettes, birth control, and breastfeeding while sick. Learn what kinds of medication and tools you should start with when you’re sick, and what good options you have that include safe pharmaceuticals for breastfeeding when you have symptoms of pain, cough, sore throat, nasal congestion, runny nose, and itchy eyes. There are some medications that should be avoided for your milk supply and couple things to be cautious of when reading Rx labels.
And this is only one chapter out of 18 that you get with the purchase of The Balanced Breastfeeding Course.
Learn more about The Balanced Breastfeeding Course and check out the reviews!
Does Being Sick Affect Breast Milk Supply?
Being sick may cause a dip in your supply, especially if you’re not nursing or pumping as much as you normally would due to low energy. However, this drop is not likely to be permanent.
In terms of your established supply, this is a very short-term issue that may occur and is very unlikely to be enough to adversely affect your baby. Continue nursing as much as you and your baby desire and pump when you normally would!
Can Breastfeeding Make Mom Sick?
Similar to the concern of you being sick and getting your baby sick through breastfeeding, you may wonder if you can get sick by breastfeeding your sick baby.
The chance of you getting sick will not be any higher by you breastfeeding. The quicker you provide your baby with the white blood cells and antibodies that your breast milk makes for them, the sooner they will get better and the better off you will be too!
Did you know that the effects of breastfeeding on your baby’s immune system last them a lifetime? Breastfeeding is known to be associated with better health outcomes in infancy and throughout adulthood. Further, research has shown that babies receiving breastmilk are less likely to develop asthma, obesity, and autoimmune diseases later in life compared to those who are exclusively formula fed.
Breast milk is a source of bioactive molecules, bacteria, and immune cells [1-4]. Immunogenic cells in breast milk program the immunogenic response in the newborn and incentivize healthy microbial colonization of the gut of the infant by training the immune system [1-4].
Additionally, breastfeeding does not take away from the mother’s immune system. Your breast milk is made from your blood which is full of living cells that your body continuously makes more of. Babies are born with underdeveloped systems including their immune systems.
This is why babies benefiting from our breast milk and our bodies producing enough of these healthy components for ourselves and our babies is so important and needs to be recognized!
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] source: Lawrence RM & Lawrence RA. Given the Benefits of Breastfeeding, what Contraindications Exist? Pediatric Clinics of North America 2001 (February);48(1): 235-51.]
[2] Ballard O, Morrow AL. Human milk composition: nutrients and bioactive factors. Pediatr Clin North Am. (2013) 60:49–74. 10.1016/j.pcl.2012.10.002 [PMC free article] [PubMed]
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more references:
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more references:
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DISCLAIMER: This post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding you or your baby’s health. Please read my Medical Disclaimer for more info
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