I have a newborn and a bad cold...

[Blakey1]

Hello

I have a four week old baby and a horrible cold. I don't know what this means for the baby, I am trying not to sneeze all over her, but am sneezing while breastfeeding, and cant always wash the germs off my hands because she will need me sooner than i can get to the sink. Are newborns OK with this sort of thing? Will my breast milk be OK?

Yes! I had a stinking cold over christmas, DS3 was 6 weeks. Your breastmilk will be full of antibodies that your body has made to fight off this particular cold, so her little body will be well equipped to fight it. my DS had it far less badly than I did. Don't worry!

thanks tabbycat, what with her already colicky I just didn't want to be responsible for making her even more miserable!

Yes make sure you breastfeed as much as she wants, the breastmilk will protect her from the virus if that makes sense? Don't worry if you're not eating much either, stress and diet don't affect breast milk.

Hope you have someone to look after you, take care of yourself. I suggest spending a couple of days cuddled up in bed with LO unless you also have older children!

Oh and tissues to catch the sneezes, saves handwashing so much. (She will probably be fine anyway) and Lemsip etc is a no-no while breastfeeding, but paracetamol on it's own is ok. HTH

Thanks BertieBotts, I was wondering about what I could take, so haven't had anything but paracetamol. She seems ok, has tiny sneezes which are quite cute, but shes not too unhappy.