Just anecdotally, my mother breastfed me back in 1959. When I was 5 or 6 (1964-65?)they tried to give me a smallpox vaccination. They tried 3 times in a row and none would "take". So I do not have a scar. The doctors attributed it to my mother breastfeeding me when I was younger. She has now passed on and I have no further information than that from her. Interestingly enough I have never had chickenpox either but have had a titer drawn and I am immune. I know people can have silent cases of chickenpox and convert but I just thought to throw that in to make it more interesting. Theresa Johnson RNC IBCLC Orlando Florida USA Dee Kassing BS MLS IBCLC <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Dear Debbie, You ask if mothers who were vaccinated against smallpox are passing those antibodies on to their babies. Based on my own personal experience, (I know, n=1) I don't think you can make that assumption. I had chicken pox as a young child (the real disease--no vaccines available then). When my second child was 8 months old, she was still totally breastfed. Her brother got the chicken pox (never knew from where), and I called the pediatrician to ask if I should be concerned about Sarah. I was told that since I was totally breastfeeding and since I had already had the disease, Sarah either shouldn't get it at all, or should have a really light case of it. Well, two weeks later, Sarah started breaking out with it. She ended up having a much worse case than her brother. She had it from the top of her head to between her toes. I tried counting blisters, but lost count after 50, and this was only on her belly and back--hadn't even gotten to limbs yet! The breastfeeding did keep her more comfortable though. Whereas her brother had been truly miserable, Sarah acted like there was nothing wrong with her. I attribute her lack of itchiness to breastmilk. To make matters even more confusing, when she was 15 years old, she got the chicken pox a second time! Dee Dee Kassing, BS, MLS, IBCLC Collinsville, Illinois, in central USA *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html