Helping parents nurture healthy babies

Can Breastfeeding Prevent the Swine Flu?

by Kate Kahn - 9 September 2009

I saw a headline the other day that read: "Breastfeeding:Natural Protector Against Swine Flu."  Naturally, it caught my attention since the ability of  the H1N1 virus to spread, is both real and frightening.  But care needs to be taken when reporting what's real and what's not.

The headline sure makes it sound as though breastfeeding can prevent the swine flu.  The writer went on to quote the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  So I went ot he CDC's website to see for myself.  The CDC's position states that breastmilk, because it's loaded with antibodies can help prevent infections such as the flu.  BUT, and there's a but, it also states that since the swine flu is new, not enough is known about whether breastfeeding can protect against it.

It may be that breastfeeding can protect against the siwne flu but we don't know yet.  So caution is needed before mothers who decide not to breastfeed feel even more pressure than before.

For more information on how to feed your baby if he/she gets the swine flu, or it you are sick and trying to breastfeed or bottle feed, visit the CDC's website.

Comments

Erin

18:15 18/11/2009
These just get better and better... so now, saying that breastfeeding likely helps to prevent swine flu is just another way to put pressure on formula-feeders?? All airborne illnesses have the potential to be lessened or avoided if the baby is breastfeeding, because breastfeeding mothers make antibodies to these illnesses - swine flu is just another form of flu. Flu is flu. And the swine flu has been around before, like in 1977. You seem to just be looking for any possible way to paint breastfeeding supporters as judgmental and act as if we exist solely to put pressure on other moms.

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