Do BF babies really get sick less often?

michelle142 · June 2012

I've read this a few times in various places.

Is this actually statistically proven?

Just curious.

DS has only ever had one tiny stuffy nose back when he started DC, but nothing since then *knock on wood!*. My nephew, who is 6 weeks older than DS and formula fed, has already been through numerous colds and ear infections. They go to the same DC.

shouldbworkin · June 2012

I only know from my DD and, yes, she was sick less often than her FF big brother. And, i wasn't only that she was sick less often, but when she did get sick, the duration was shorter and intensity was less. That helped out a lot!

med380 · June 2012

Hate to say it but my DS still got sick a lot when he was EBF. During his first year it seems like he had fevers and colds ALL the time. Although it was the height of flu season when he started daycare.

I think it is inevitable that any child is going to get sick from daycare, obviously I have no idea if it would have been worse had he been formula fed. DD starts daycare in a couple weeks so we'll see if it's different with her!

mabst196 · June 2012

Its hard to compare for my kids. My DD was FF but wasn't in daycare until 3. She was at a babysitter's house with a couple other kids. As the baby the colds she got always turned into ear infections. DS is EBF and was in daycare from 12 weeks and had numerous colds all winter long but none of them turned into an ear infection or warranted antibiotics. His colds have been less significant for sure and he's made it through a couple stomach viruses that affected the rest of the household without catching them. So, I'd say overall, yes, somewhat less sick.

AmyRI · June 2012

In my experience, it is not a decrease in the number of times he gets sick compared to the other babies at daycare. They all get sick at once. What is different is the severity and recovery time. Colds do not keep DS down for long (maybe a day) and because he recovers quickly and his head doesn't stay stuffy for long, we've only had one ear infection in almost 13 months.

I think in general, if mama gets sick first and passes antibodies along through milk, that the baby might not get sick. But since DS is in daycare, he is the one that brings germs home, so I can only help him fight it once we're both sick.

pumpkinwife07 · June 2012

Personally, I think it's 50/50. A specific child's immune system, genetics, day to day surroundings seem to have more to do with it than anything. My mom has owned her own daycare for 32 years and has seen a lot. She swears there isn't a difference and clearly has the experience to back it up.

tokenhoser · June 2012

My boy has been pretty healthy - a few colds, short lived, and that's it. I do think he recovers faster because he gets some antibodies from me. I also trust the research more than I trust anecdotes. Both groups will have some super healthy and super sick babies in them - but on average, the breastfed babies are healthier. I do believe that. Breastmilk is a living fluid. Formula is cow's milk and corn syrup.

CBBB2010 · June 2012

I don't know if is true or not, but my BF kids still feel like they get sick all the time. DS1 was BF for 8 months and it felt like he was sick pretty frequently with things he had to stay home for daycare with plus numerous colds between those illnesses. He never had ear infections until after he was weaned, though.

DS2 is now on his second cold at almost 8 weeks old thanks to germs brought home by DS2. I think it is just so hard to avoid illness with kids in daycare. Like another poster said, the kids all get sick at once.

jess!ca · June 2012

I feel like DD is sick all.the.time. She is in DC, so maybe that is it, but she's had Coxsackievirus 2X, strep, 2 ear infections, bronchiolitis and several colds (which I am sure caused the ear infections.) She's fighting a nasty cold now and I think tomorrow I am going to have to take her to have her ears checked again... We are EBF/ bottle feeding BM at school for 9 months now. Oy.

tokenhoser · June 2012

Here's one journal article:

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.89.1.25

judahsmommy1 · June 2012

Yes, it has been statistically proven that breastfed babies get sick fewer times and that the duration and severity of illness is reduced for exclusively breastfed infants. All major medical associations including the American Association of Pediatrics have confirmed this. With that being said, that does not translate to ALL breastfed babies not getting sick. It's a lot more complicated than that. So your baby may get sick more often than another randomly chosen formula fed baby, even if your child never gets a drop of formula.

My child was exclusively breastfed, didn't attend day care, and no one he spent any significant time around smoked. He still got 6 ear infections in his first year. Statistically, he shouldn't have. But my child isn't a statistic, he's an individual.

pepomntpat · June 2012

tokenhoser:
Here's one journal article:
https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.89.1.25

Here is another.

https://adc.bmj.com/content/88/3/224.abstract

ETA: And just because something is statistically proven does not mean it will be true in your individual case. All of the responses to this post are anecdotal and not based on statistics.

Suesse2009 · June 2012

My daughter hasn't been sick at all. She hasn't even had a cold. I think it has to do with many factors. She is breastfed, my husband and I have been healthy this year, and she isn't around a lot of germy kids.

ArcadianDreams · June 2012

Statistically, yes they do get sick less often, and the colds they do get are less severe. But statistics aren't absolutes, so there will always be people whose baby got sick more than the FF one, or the FF baby who never got sick, that's why you never listen when people say, "Well the research says X but it's baloney because *I* never had that problem"

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