Can a mother with an infectious disease continue to breastfeed?
Can’t breastfeed because you have an infection? For a fuller discussion, see: https://ibconline.ca/maternal-illness2/
Infectious illnesses, even COVID-19 and influenza, are not reasons to interrupt breastfeeding. On the contrary, breastfeeding helps protect the baby from becoming sick since breastmilk is full of anti-infective agents. Not just antibodies, but also a whole host of other anti-infectious agents that help to protect the baby.
Most infectious diseases, whether they are due to a bacterium or a virus (e.g. Covid-19, influenza, cold viruses, the ones most common at this time of the year), are most infectious before the person with the infection feels sick. Thus, the breastfeeding baby or toddler is exposed to the bacterium or the virus for days, even a week or two in the case of some infections, before the mother has any symptoms such as fever or rash. Even if it were a good idea to interrupt breastfeeding (IT IS NOT!), by the time the mother has symptoms, the infection has already been passed to her baby and continued breastfeeding is best for both mother and baby.
Even human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), once considered a contraindication to breastfeeding in affluent societies, is now considered compatible with breastfeeding. See this article by the World Health Organization. Mothers with HIV should take anti-retroviral drugs during the pregnancy and after the birth and breastfeed normally, exclusively for at least the first 6 months and better for a year. The baby should also receive anti-retroviral medication. See the World Health Organization website regarding HIV and breastfeeding.
Antibiotics do not require a mother to interrupt breastfeeding. Even doxycycline, for years considered contraindicated because it was wrongly thought to stain the child's teeth (as does tetracycline (to which doxycycline is "related") has always been safe because of the way it is bound to the calcium and other elements in breastmilk and thus not absorbed by the baby. But now parents can feel even more reassured because it has been shown that doxycycline given to children directly, usually to treat malaria, does not have the effects on teeth previously ascribed to it. So now there are additional reasons for doxycycline to be considered compatible with breastfeeding.
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The mother feels really unwell? We recommend taking the baby to bed with her and continued breastfeeding.
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