Breastfeeding Question/Poll????????????????????????

Question

I would like to know from women who breastfed and women who didn't. Did your breastfed child have less colds or ear infections in the first year than the non-breastfed child? Or for the non-breastfed child where they just as healthy the first year as the breastfed child? I ask because I know people who breastfed and people who didn't and their kids appear to be equally healthy. But I am not with them all the time so I don't know if they are equally healthy. I know there are benefits to breastfeeding, I breastfed my daughter and she had about 2 colds (one when she was 7 mos. and the other at 1 year old) but no ear infections or other illnesses but I know kids who had several colds, ear infections and pneumonia the first year. But does that have to do with not breastfeeding/breastfeeding or environment. I hope I explained this clearly. Thanks for any insight.

Answer 1

I breastfed my son exclusively until 4 months of age when I started him on solids. Not long after that I had to start supplimenting with formula because my son decided that there were more fun things to do than look at mommy when eating. :) (It was recommended that I pump when he doesn't want to nurse. I tried and it is almost impossible to pump when he's awake!) Anyway, he's almost 6 months now and still nurses at least once a day. Or, if he's having a day that he wants nothing at all to do with nursing, he gets at least one bottle of pumped breastmilk a day. He also eats 2-3 meals of solids and several feedings of formula a day.

He's been very healthy. We have had 2 colds, one at 3 months, and one this past week. Both times we were in places that were very crowded within a week before he got sick. I'm a SAHM so my baby's not exposed to lots of people very often, so it just figures that he'd get sick after large gatherings of people. We have not had any problems with ear infections to date.

To be honest (and I'm ducking while I type this because I can just feel the breastfeeding fanatics chucking things at my head when I say this! Don't hurt me, ladies!), I truly think that it has more to do with environment than anything else.

Breastfeeding is great, but it isn't a cure-all for childhood illnesses. If you have a baby in daycare, or really any public place, they have a chance of getting sick no matter what they're fed. It just depends upon what the child is exposed to. What would be interesting to see would be how these kids do when they get older. If their immune systems are challanged more when they are babies, do they get sick less when they are older, say, starting school? And vice versa, do the kids whos moms stayed home get sick more because they weren't exposed to as much when they were little?

My opinion? Breastfeed if you can/want to. Otherwise, formula fed babies do well too (ducking again). :)

Thanks for the great question!

Answer 2

I bottlefed my first son because I didn't realize how hard breastfeeding was. And I breastfed my second son because I really wanted to do it. Both were very healthy babies and are healthy children. Neither had any ear infections and maybe only one or 2 colds their first year. So I really didn't see a difference in health. I'm still a big fan of breastfeeding though.

Answer 3

I breastfed my son until almost two, and he has not had 1 ear infection, has rarely been sick and never anything serious.
I also have a 7 month old who is breastfed and has never been sick at all.
I don't know if it is because of the breast feeding, but the non-breastfed children I know have definitely been sicker more often, and more severely then the breastfed children.

Answer 4

I breastfed my daughter for a full year and she had no ear infections and a couple of colds like your daughter. That does have a lot to do with breastfeeding more than environment because as a mother you are passing on your antibodies to your baby and that protects them from infection more than anything else. That is why they just discovered that pregnant mothers can get flu shots and the babies will be protected after they are born.

Answer 5

Breastfeeding definitely helps to boost babies immature immune system, that is a proven medical fact. You also have to consider how often a child is exposed to people who are sick - those in daycare often fall ill whether they are breastfed or not. My husband brought home the flu many times from his work, and our daughter thankfully didnt catch it. We chalked that up to my nursing her. The first time she was sick she was almost 11mths old, and that hit her really hard. She got an ear infection after day 3 or 4 of her cold, so she had a really difficult wk. Other than that, she's been a perfect image of health. Comparing to other children we know her age she's gotten sick much less, and their mothers tell me how lucky my daughter is to have been nursed (as they didnt nurse their babies/had already stopped) so as to be protected more.

Answer 6

Great question ..... I breastfed 4 babies to varying degrees and it was all over the place with the ear infections and colds. I can say this my oldest was breastfed for 12 months and was exposed to his three cousins who had chicken pox. He was with them every day, before, during and after the chicken pox (I was the babysitter) and he didn't get chicken pox at all. I don't know if it's true but I totally attribute that to the breastfeeding.

Answer 7

I breastfed my son until he was almost two and he had only one ear infection and only a few minor colds in those two years. He doesn't have any allergies either. Now, he didn't really have much interaction with any other children until he was older than that, so he would only get infected from us for the most part.

Answer 8

i breastfed my daughter until she was about 1 & 1/2 months because she stopped latching on, and i was too exausted to keep up with seperate feeding and pumping schedules. she didn't catch a cold until she was about 8 months old. i was a stay at home mom until she was a year old, so i never really took her out too much, so i'm not sure if her lack of sickness came from breastfeeding or staying home all the time. however, if you are able to breastfeed, i highly recommend it, it's a very rewarding experience. good luck!

Answer 9

i breastfed 5 children...the first two for one month. they had chronic ear infections and colds. i'm not sure if that was due to be in daycare. i nursed the other 3 for 8 months and only one of them had an ear infection. they always got colds but that was it.

Answer 10

Both my children have been breastfed. They both had minor colds but nothing serious. I would notice with friends children who were not breastfed that they seemed to get colds/ infections worse and longer. I think it is often more likely that unbreastfed children get colds more frequently.