Breastmilk and fighting colds... question.

[aj's mom]

DD will be starting daycare in August but she will still be brestfed - although not as often bc I won't be pumping so she'll only get about 3 BM feeds a day. 
I know they say that daycares are germ factories and babies are sick all the time, bla bla bla... and also that breastmilk will help fight off those colds and illnesses.  My question is... if the breastmilk is fighting off colds for her now, what about when she stops BFing a few months after I put her in daycare ... will she be more resistant to colds as a result of the BM she had in the past while in contact with germs that cause illness, or will she just beging getting sick as if she were starting from scratch?  Does that make sense?  Basically will the BM now help her ward off the same germs she is in contact with later with no BM?

[Samuel's mum]

Babies who are breastfed are more likely to have stronger immune systems for a variety of reasons. One reason is that the mother passes on antibodies from her own body and environment. However this isn't the whole story. I would say that when she stops breastfeeding she will have some protection from having been breastfed but being breastfed does not prevent a lot of the infections getting through anyway (especially powerful viruses like colds). She probably will still get sick from the beginning but perhaps less seriously and everytime she gets ill she will protect herself against the next time that bug shows up. While breastfeeding she will either get a milder form or the exact same form as all the other kids.

[Carter'sMama]

When you breastfeed you pass on antibodies from your own body.  Therefore if you get a cold and are fighting it off your baby will not get that cold from you.  I didn't believe that to be true until it happened to me.  I had a bad cold and went to the Dr.  He assured me that no matter what I did Carter wouldn't get sick.  Sure enough, after breathing on him, kissing him and doing all those other mothering things he never got sick because he had the antibodies.

When he started daycare he immediately got a cold.  Mainly because I had never been exposed to that virus and therefore had not been able to supply the antibodies for it.  I remember telling Dh that I should go to daycare with all of the sick kids, get all the illnesses, make antibodies for them and then Carter would never get sick    He has had 2 colds in the 4 months he has been at daycare and I only breastfed for 2 of those months.  Now that I am not bf'ing he still doesn't get as many colds as the other kids.

HTH   

[bethann]

Since I have only been BFing for a little over two months, I don't profess to know a lot....but I do know that 3 weeks ago I had the worst flu/cold/sore throat/ cough that I've ever had (and it lasted for 2 wks), and DD got nothing!  However, my mother has always told me that for the first three months the LO won't get sick as a result of all the antibodies from you, but after that, she will get a few colds as she starts to develop her own immune system and antibodies (in fact, she is supposed to get those colds in order for her to fight off anything else that may come!).  So I guess one can deduce that your LO has already, just as a result of your BF for the time that you have, has begun to develop her own immune stystem which will help her fight off anything that will come her way now.  I would think that it has been "jump started" it so that even when you ween her a bit when she starts daycare, she should have built up a better deffense than if not BF at all.  I would also think that as you continue to BF, it will give her all the more deffense that she has against those nasty germs.