Breastfeeding through flu season

[SeekingJoy]

Is there any research that supports breastfeeding/breastmilk as a way to minimize the risk or duration of the flu?

I have a friend breastfeeding her infant who is planning to wean at 6 months -- just in time for flu season -- and I thought being able to share an evidence-based article might help explain to her the benefits of continuing to partially breastfeed for immunities, even if she can't continue to pump at work.

[nicky85]

I would assume that breastfeeding would help with the flu. I read in Randall Neustaedter's "The Vaccine Guide" about a study that showed that kids who were breastfed had much, much lower rates of haemophilius meningitis and that the immunity benefits of being breastfed seemed to extend beyond weaning and into childhood. If it can help prevent meningitis, I would assume it would help prevent the flu.

[rhiOrion]

Hmm, not sure about research exactly, but there are some "official" pages about it.

http://www.ok.gov/health/Organizatio...lu_Season.html


This one talks about getting a flu vaccine as very important, but it also states and explains why breastfeeding is important in flu season
http://www.ilca.org/files/in_the_new...ents-Flu-4.pdf

[lifeguard]

Antidotal but, last year ds & I got h1n1. I had it MUCH worse than him & I feel the bfing is a large part of that.

[blake201]

There are definitely studies out there about breastfed babies getting lower rates of illness! I had a really bad cold that turned into a case of bronchitis recently (was worried I had pneumonia) and was coughing up nasty stuff like crazy, had a fever, etc... my 8 week old baby didn't even get a mild cold!

Anyway, the flu often leads to pneumonia, which can be deadly for babies, and there are clear studies that breastfeeding protects babies from pneumonia:

A study done in Brazil and published in the British Medical Journal found that "Infants who were not being breast fed were 17 times more likely than those being breast fed without formula milk to be admitted to hospital for pneumonia"... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC27869/

And here's a study done in Argentina:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE51G5C520090217

[Zoesmama]

I definitely believe in the immunity properties of breastfeeding past 6 months. DD was never sick until she stopped nursing and got her first cold at a year old. Even now at 7 she is rarely sick and has never had more than a cold/allergies and a few ear infections.

She has never got a flu shot either if that helps. Hope some of the materials may persuade her to at least try to go longer. My best friend is nursing her 4th(the only of them she has tried bfing) and plans to stop at 6 months too. I'm proud of her for even coming this far. Even though there is a lot of supplementing she tried and it matters.

[Heba]

Originally Posted by lifeguard

Antidotal but, last year ds & I got h1n1. I had it MUCH worse than him & I feel the bfing is a large part of that.

Same here. (Not H1N1, but an earlier strain. Very nasty, but although ds was a newborn, he was the least ill of the whole family.)