Are reactions to vaccinations lessened if you breast feed?

[Hazelraphael]

DD is due to have her third lot of vaccinations very late (she is almost 7 months.) I am close to giving up breastfeeding but I have a feeling and I don't know if it's rational or not, that I need to help her "fight off" the reaction from the vaccinations through breastfeeding her through it rather than switching to formula.

Is my feeling founded or not?

My layman's understanding is that when the baby catches a virus, saliva from the baby interacts with your body in/at the nipple to produce your immune response. If you have had that virus, your body produces the antibodies and they go into the baby through the breastmilk. The baby benefits from the mother's superior immune system so the symptoms/duration of illness are reduced.

I assume the same thing happens with vaccinations.

I am very much a layman though. I could be wrong

I did read in some books about breastfeeding (I think it was Politics of BF or Dr Jack Newman's Guide to BF, both great books) that the baby's immune response to vaccination is impaired in the non-bf baby as their immune system hasn't been aided by the various immune complexes in breast milk. So the vaccines would be more effective in a bf baby. Not sure how long that is the case for,

Bf also has a mild painkiller effect so makes the process easier on the day and immediately afterwards.