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Do I have to throw away my breastmilk?
- Thread starter nikimom
- Start date
i know, feels terrible to have to throw away the milk, yet you cannot give it to your baby... you know what i used to do? i make hot chocolate with it & gave it to my hubby.... hee hee
but i've never had food poisoning, it was only alcohol. i am not sure, but with alcohol i waited 12 hours. so maybe for food poisoning wait 16 hours ?
but i've never had food poisoning, it was only alcohol. i am not sure, but with alcohol i waited 12 hours. so maybe for food poisoning wait 16 hours ?
Within hours of a mother coming into contact of an illness her milk has the specific antibodies for that illness in her milk. Thus the BEST way to help your baby not get any illness that you have is to continue breastfeeding your baby.
It is true that minute amounts of anything in your blood system can transfer to your milk system (if the molecules are small enough to fit though the breast wall ? or if those molecules haven?t bound to a protein, which will also make them too big to get through he breast wall.) However, the antibodies in the milk get to these and disable them before they can harm your baby.
The whole topic of immunobiology of human milk is very fasinating and, unfortunately, very complex. But if you are up to reading a book on the topic I recommend Immunobiology of Human Milk: How Breastfeeding Protects Babies by Lars Hanson, MD, PhD. After reading this book all I can say is ?Still confused but at a higher level.?
But the bottom line is please don?t worry your milk is fine to use.
Best wishes,
SARAH
La Leche League Leader and IBCLC
It is true that minute amounts of anything in your blood system can transfer to your milk system (if the molecules are small enough to fit though the breast wall ? or if those molecules haven?t bound to a protein, which will also make them too big to get through he breast wall.) However, the antibodies in the milk get to these and disable them before they can harm your baby.
The whole topic of immunobiology of human milk is very fasinating and, unfortunately, very complex. But if you are up to reading a book on the topic I recommend Immunobiology of Human Milk: How Breastfeeding Protects Babies by Lars Hanson, MD, PhD. After reading this book all I can say is ?Still confused but at a higher level.?
But the bottom line is please don?t worry your milk is fine to use.
Best wishes,
SARAH
La Leche League Leader and IBCLC
If you have a glass of wine with your dinner it will take about 90 minutes (1 ? hours) for the alcohol to enter your milk supply and leave it again. There is no need to express milk during this time the alcohol will leave your milk supply as soon as there is less alcohol in your blood than in your milk.
Drinking alcohol does, however, tend to reduce your let-down so a baby is likely to drink less milk at a feed if you?ve been drinking. Research shows that babies drink less milk in the four hours after you?ve had a drink but drink more in the next 12 hours ? thus after 16 hours the baby has had about the same amount.
Obviously this isn?t a problem if you are just having the occasional drink or even one a day with your dinner. There is, however, a potential problem if you are drink a lot or drinking often throughout the day. In these cases it is important to keep a check on the baby to make sure he is growing and developing well.
Best wishes,
SARAH
Drinking alcohol does, however, tend to reduce your let-down so a baby is likely to drink less milk at a feed if you?ve been drinking. Research shows that babies drink less milk in the four hours after you?ve had a drink but drink more in the next 12 hours ? thus after 16 hours the baby has had about the same amount.
Obviously this isn?t a problem if you are just having the occasional drink or even one a day with your dinner. There is, however, a potential problem if you are drink a lot or drinking often throughout the day. In these cases it is important to keep a check on the baby to make sure he is growing and developing well.
Best wishes,
SARAH
Joannek, I have to 100% diagree. I would take the "risk" because there is no risk. Babies who are BF have fewer gastrointestinal illnesses than babies who are bottle feed, and it is all because of the antiodies. Even if a mom is sick,t he child is much less likely to get that illness if BF, compared to bottle feeding. If they do get an illness, they will have it less severly and recover quicler because of the passive immunity they recieve.
If the baby did get the illness, a gastro illness is passed via oral route, those types of bacteria are not going to be passed via breastmillk, but baby will still get antibodies, for all virus', bacteria mom comes into contact with, even ones that mom isn't aware of. You are exposed to bacteria and virus all day long, but only a small percentage will make you sick.
In fact your baby will also recieve antibodies via prenancy and Bf from some illnesses in the past. This is why youdo not develop long term immunity from live vaccines such as chickenpox and measles when give under 1 year of age, hence they are given after 1 year. By then the antibodies recieved via pregnancy have worn off. Prior to this the antibody will kill of the vaccine virus and you won't get the long term immunity. I do wonder what role BF has in this though, I wonder if it makes it less effetive. I wonder if there are studies on this? Where I live (Canada), still the majority of people do not BF up to a year, so my guess is that there is not a lot of research.
Here is link on illness and BF
http://www.llli.org/FAQ/sick.html
If the baby did get the illness, a gastro illness is passed via oral route, those types of bacteria are not going to be passed via breastmillk, but baby will still get antibodies, for all virus', bacteria mom comes into contact with, even ones that mom isn't aware of. You are exposed to bacteria and virus all day long, but only a small percentage will make you sick.
In fact your baby will also recieve antibodies via prenancy and Bf from some illnesses in the past. This is why youdo not develop long term immunity from live vaccines such as chickenpox and measles when give under 1 year of age, hence they are given after 1 year. By then the antibodies recieved via pregnancy have worn off. Prior to this the antibody will kill of the vaccine virus and you won't get the long term immunity. I do wonder what role BF has in this though, I wonder if it makes it less effetive. I wonder if there are studies on this? Where I live (Canada), still the majority of people do not BF up to a year, so my guess is that there is not a lot of research.
Here is link on illness and BF
http://www.llli.org/FAQ/sick.html
Breastfeeding actually helps vaccines that the babies have work better. This is a quote from a LLL information sheet entitled Breastfeeding: Baby’s First Immunization
Another significant finding in regard to immunization is that breastfeed babies showed a better response to vaccines with significantly higher antibody levels than formula fed babies (Zoppi 1983, Pabst 1989, Hahn-Zoric 1990)
You can view the whole of this bilingual information sheet on the LLL-HK web site, www.lllhk.org, under the Breastfeeding Information Section.
Unfortunately there is a problem with our server at the moment but they are working to fix this and the web site should be working again soon.
Best wishes,
SARAH
Another significant finding in regard to immunization is that breastfeed babies showed a better response to vaccines with significantly higher antibody levels than formula fed babies (Zoppi 1983, Pabst 1989, Hahn-Zoric 1990)
You can view the whole of this bilingual information sheet on the LLL-HK web site, www.lllhk.org, under the Breastfeeding Information Section.
Unfortunately there is a problem with our server at the moment but they are working to fix this and the web site should be working again soon.
Best wishes,
SARAH
About this archive
This is an archive of over 20 years of GeoBaby and GeoSchools knowledge and discussions, kept online as a read-only reference.