Lynn wrote: >>Went to a "girls night out" with neighborhood women, 12 of
us. We were sitting around eating dinner when one other woman, Mom of a 8
mth old only child, began discussing the fact that her daughter is sick yet
again, how she picks up everything from her daycare (she was never
breastfed) and that she guesses "she should be glad because this will
probably mean (supposedly according to her pedi) that by the time the baby
gets to school age, she will be immune to everything." <<
When I put my 3 month old in daycare when I returned to work 3 years ago, a
number of mothers told me the same thing. Where did this apparently "common
knowledge" come from? As a health professional I hadn't heard research
about this before, but I'm also clinically focused in the perinatal area so
I was basically learning my information about older infants as I went along.
(Mind you, I'm not professing to be "all-knowing" about the perinatal
field, either!). Does anyone know where this theory comes from and if it
has validity?
<<The other women all seemed to think this was a good point so I felt the
need to chime in with my 2 cents (pretending to be entirely sure of it, but
really not!) that in fact that babies aren't meant to be exposed to so many
sources of infection at such a young age, that their immune systems don't
mature for years explaining that they recieve immunities from Mom while
pregnant and Mom's milk ,IF nursed but that this baby would be more
susceptible. I went on to explain that all of this infection could be
delaying this babe's G&D and may even negatively impact this babe's long
term immune status (shaky ground?) I then went on to say something like,
"its a good thing that this warehousing of babies wasn't taking place before
the advent of antibiotics because if so we'd probably have the highest
infant mortality rate in the world">>
I like your style, Lynn, and only wish I could think as fast on my feet in
certain situations!
Wanda Mertick, RN, MN, IBCLC
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