BF moms whose LO has been sick...

treala05 · January 2011

Did you notice an increase or decrease in the amount they nursed while sick?

It seems like DS is nursing less while sick right now. I'm slightly engorged throughout the day and last night he went an 8 hour stretch (when he's normally up every 3 hours to eat). I'm wondering if it's because he's sick or just a change in his eating patterns.

Thanks!

Genevieve_kris · January 2011

This happened to us when DD had the flu. I used it as an opportunity to build up my freezer stash. However, make sure to nurse her as much as you can - our pedi explained that when you nurse, your baby passes the illness to you through nursing, and then your body creates antibodies that pass back to you baby through the BM. This is why a whole family can get sick while the BF baby avoids the illness. Amazing.

yeshuahamasshiah · January 2011

Genevieve_kris:
This happened to us when DD had the flu. I used it as an opportunity to build up my freezer stash. However, make sure to nurse her as much as you can - our pedi explained that when you nurse, your baby passes the illness to you through nursing, and then your body creates antibodies that pass back to you baby through the BM. This is why a whole family can get sick while the BF baby avoids the illness. Amazing.

THIS

Also if you do end up getting the flu yourself, avoid taking any Antihistamines as these will transfer to the baby in your milk and make LO drowsy.

historychick79 · January 2011

DS is a crazy nurser anyway, will still nurse every 1 1/2hrs if he can, so I've never noticed if he really took in more during the day ( since Oct, he's had 3 colds, a stomach bug and RSV, courtesy of daycare Stick out tongue

). I do make sure that when he's sick I will respond to every wake-up at night to nurse him, so he's getting a lot of fluids, just like we need when we're sick; however I agree he sometimes sleeps even better when he is sick and isn't up as much when healthy. It may just be that your LO needs his sleep right now more than the food; if it lasts more than a few days maybe call the pedi, but if it's only a day or two I wouldn't worry too much.

Ardmhs83 · January 2011

My DS nursed the same.

kellelle01 · January 2011

For maybe a day or so he nursed less and slept more. Then the next day he nursed like crazy. He is still congested a little bit and has had this cold for almost 3 weeks. We're going in to the pedi again today.