That is about it going.

Remember. Nothing is a gurantee...but bf helps.

I expect so. dd caught flu from myself and dh when she was 5 weeks old. We were very poorly, she much less so. I was told by gp to feed her every two hours and that the breast feeding was really helping her. It was tough, but we got through

Thanks everyone. Don't worry about carrying on discussing something that wasn't in the original q - I'm interested! So it probably won't stop him getting it but may help make the symptoms milder, esp if d&v - is that right?

Good point actually - I had forgotten about the D&V with the flu.

interestingly one study recently has found that this swine flu may be able to travel to gastrointestinal tract (well in ferrets anyway!).

link to article

So perhaps (utter speculation!) breast-feeding might help with that aspect.

But all of those (with the possible exception of interferon) things are directed against pathogens which are located in the gastro-intestinal tract of the infant. Not the systemic circulation of the infant.

TBH...it is a mute point - as OPs question has been answered....we are now debating the finer points - which aren't strictly relevant to OP's question.

Setting aside the tailor-made antibodies theme breastmilk also contains other components which help the body to fight viral attack.

Mucin proteins contain proteins and carbohydrates that literally stick to viruses and make them pass through the body more quickly. This is one of the main ways breastmilk can help minimize diarrhoea.

Lysozyme is another protein that kills viruses.

Interferon is another antiviral substance which inhibits viral reproduction.

But even if the mother is not fully infected the specialized antibodies maufacturing starts immediately. When a baby feeds the thin skin of the nipple/ areola allows some pathogens to pass into the mother's bloodstream from the baby's saliva. This speeds up the process by which the mother manufactures the antibodies.

Preen

TBH Belgian...you are not inaccurate.

She will only recieve Swine flu specific antibodies if the mother makes swine flu ABs, which will only occur if the mother also become infected (although it can be an asymptomatic concurrent infection).

There are other goodies in milk which can help - like white clood cells which can deal with D&V type bugs in the stomach.

Milk itself is a pretty good anti-bactererial environment...but other than the ABs for a specific disease/bug it isn't going to help MASSIVELY with something the child is infected with systemincally (apart from subclinically infecting the mother for the mother to make ABs....)

in my pitifully small understanding, one of us picks it up and we pass it back and forth till both of us are ok or have succumbed. or we have died or it has mutated...