Dumb Question - Okay to give bm when sick?

[spunky84]

I woke up this morning with a stomach bug. Nauseous with, um, diarrhea (sorry for tmi!).

Can the stomach bug pass through bm and make LO sick?

If I shouldn't be giving it to her, the last time I pumped was last night at 9 - didn't get symptoms until I woke up. So I'm not sure if I should dump what I pumped yesterday.

 

[JenX]

Keep breastfeeding. If you do, your LO is less likely to get sick with what you have, not more. Your body is already fighting whatever is making you ill, and by breastfeeding you are passing antibodies against it to your baby.

 

[staralfur]

Yep, as the PP said, breastfeeding is actually the best thing you can do to prevent her from getting sick.

She'll likely be exposed to the bug through the close contact you have with her, so passing along the antibodies your body is creating will help her.

 

[spunky84]

Very good to know! I'm mostly just puking now, and I'm just dreading pumping and at the same time worried about what this is going to do to my supply!

MIL is going to pick her from daycare in a couple of hours so this will be interesting.

Thanks for the info. It's reassuring on different levels!

 

[Here_we_go]

It's surprising the amount of mothers who don't breastfeed when sick because they don't want their babies to get sick not realizing the baby was probably already exposed to it prior to the mother showing symptoms. Breastmilk really helps build up immunity against illness and like others have said, you really want to continue to pass on any antibodies your body produces to help protect the baby

 

[spunky84]

It's definitely beneficial to know! This is the first time I've been sick since having LO. I would have otherwise ended up dumping a lot of milk!

I just started getting sick with sinuses today (go figure!). I was actually just reading this morning how breast milk can be used for other things as well and how people have actually put breast milk up their nose and it helped.

I did that this morning and the difference was amazing. It'd normally take me 2 days of mucinex to get to this point. So just in seeing what it did for me just makes me truly appreciate what it is (hopefully) doing for her. She hasn't gotten sick yet regardless of the fact that DH had a stomach bug last weekend (different from mine) and mine this week.

 

[m79]

I'm bf and we both have chicken pox ! :-0