Breastfeeding mothers and their baby(ies) share all germs.  This should be
apparent to anyone who has studied microbiology, and as you and your husband
concluded.  It is also known by anyone who has studied microbiology that we
are infected by viruses, bacteria etc, long before we know we are sick, so
that separation, or washing of nipples in this case, is like closing the
barn door after the...what?... what is that expression anyways?  In other
words, the infection of susceptible contacts usually occurs before we know
we are infected.  Do you really need documentation for something which
should be patently obvious to the most casual of observers?  Ask the
physician to check his microbiology textbooks.  That'll keep him busy for a
while.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC