Will breastfeeding help my 12mo with chicken pox?

[MumOfEmily]

My dd has just come down with chicken pox after an outbreak of it at her nursery - so far only very mild with about 20 spots and no fever or anything. I'm sure I read somewhere that breastfeeding can help them recover more quickly (assuming Mum has had chicken pox in the past!) Does anyone know if this is true and do you have any experience of this? Would just like to know what to expect!

I don't have any experience but she should get it less badly than if she wasn't bf as you'll be passing her your antibodies through the milk which will help her fight it off. Hope she gets better soon :)

I can only go on my experience - DS had chicken pox when he was the same age as DD (I have never had it - despite my mum's best efforts ). Apart from being spotty, he was fine, full of beans, eating well and no fever, where as my other friends babies of the same age (there was a bit of a mini epidemic in our area) said their los were a bit poorly, off their food and feverish
DS was the only one who was still breastfed.

However this is anecdotal evidence!

What was hard was keeping him entertained as we couldn't go out anywhere due to the risk of him infecting other people! We were climbing the walls after a few days (and I STILL never got it!).

again only anetdotal evidence but my two have had it recently DS (3) not bf DD (10 weeks at the time) was bf. Both just got spots and weren't really I'll with it. But like Kara we were climbing the Walls for about 4 weeks as DD got it 2 weeks after DS. Not sure if the bf helped or if it was just a mild strain since DS was no more poorly than DD. But then he should have a better immune system being older.

My husband had chicken pox a few weeks ago and I was sure that our 4 month old would get it - we were co sleeping, he had her in bath etc etc before we realised he had them.
I was BF and she didn't get them, so it must have helped I reckon.
Just an aside, I just did a paedatric first aid course and the instructor said not to use calamine as it dires their skin out and causes more itching but to put them in a bath with dissolved aspirin.
Hope all back to normal soon.

My DS had it at 20 months. He had a very mild dose and the bfing did seem to help.

Thanks for all your replies. Sounds like bf might be of some help! I will feed dd lots! Like some of you said, it's a bit boring having to stay at home, when your child isn't really feeling ill! It'll probably snow soon too, just to make us feel really stuck at home! :)

I was just about to buy some calamine lotion, nougatness, so glad I read your post. So far, the spots aren't bothering her that much so hopefully won't need anything anyway.

Hope your ds gets better soon too, StayFrosty. It's a shame for their lovely skin to be covered in spots...

I bought the calamine but never used it - DS wasn't scratching his spots so they never bothered him. Adding oats to her bath may help if your DD is itchy.

DD was 4 months, EBF, a good feeder, but still got it very very severely and had to be hospitalized :(

SOrry to put a damper. Didn't want you to get loads of anecdotal evidence one way and then feel bad if it didn't help.

Funnily enough, my DS is just getting over chickenpox and I wondered if the BF made any difference. I suspect not, unfortunately, though he now only feeds 2-3 times a day so perhaps the volume helps.

I have tried rubbing a bit of BM on a couple of spots to see if that helped - given it cleared up some manky skins stuff when he was tiny, but wasn't much use!

I'll second oat baths, and also recommend Poxclin. Horribly expensive compared to calamine, and makes them weirdly sticky, but really seems to do the trick.

no, while baby is under 10 months (ish, i think) you can still confer immunity
doesn't always happen, and there are plenty of cases where younger children do get it... but it offers some protection against the disease

once their own immune system is starting to develop properly though it won't help really

i don't think it will make any difference to how severely they get it or how long it takes to recover

what it will do however, is give comfort and nutrition to a child who is ffeeling truly grotty though! so it is still a huge benefit

Ooh yes, Poxclin is really good.

as thisis says, BF will be brilliant for comforting your child. That will be guaranteed.

My experience with chicken pox was DS (about 15 months) and DH getting it really badly and they were both really poorly. It was great to have something to soothe DS with. It lasted about three days for him and about a week for DH (who obv is not BF )