Thank you Kathy, that's just what I also believe to be true about
breastfeeding and the diseases we vaccinate against in the west. I'd also
like to point out that I was definitetly not trivialising the protective
effects of breastfeeding when telling expectant mothers that bf does not
give full protection against polio etc. I was trying to be as realistic as
possible. I feel that by only describing the diseases that breastmilk
clearly does protect against, you could be lulling people into a false sense
of well-being and incurring that it is not necesarry to vaccinate their
breastfed children. I also feel responsible to give the correct information.
That doesn't mean to say that I tell parents they HAVE to vaccinate, but to
give them balanced info, so that they make their own choices. I am
definitely not trivialising breastmilk, and personally believe as a
breastfeeding advocate that breastmilk is much more that nutrition alone.
This I highlight by mentioning all its other components that allow for
normal development and help significantly reduce the risk of disease
(including that from rotavirus infection). That's not to mention its social
/ psychological benefits.
Although this seems trivial now, compared to the descriptions that Kathy has
given of bf babies/children dying of diptheria or tetnus in developing
countries, I do have first hand experience of bf not totally preventing
childhood disease. Both my sons (one 4 years the other 2 months at the time)
contracted chicken pox at the same time. Neither of them really suffered any
ill effects from it, and their infections were not as bad as the bout of
chicken pox my mother describes me as having as a child (actually, I still
remember it!). Both were breastfed, the youngest was currently breastfeeding
at the time of infection of course. In this case breastfeeding did not
prevent either of them contracting the disease. Like kathy says, it may well
have decreased the severity of their illnesses and better equipped them
recover quickly, but bf did not prevent the disease.
I also have a younger brother who had pertussis as a child, he survived it
with no ill effects, but I wouldn't wish it on anyones child (no, he wasn't
breastfed).
Out of interest, children are not routinely immunised against rotavirus or
chicken pox here in the Netherlands (this includes bottle and breastfed
babies). They are immunised against the rest of the diseases (not HepB) you
mention including Pertussis (whooping cough). The pertussis vaccination
schedule has been re-evaluated here recently to re-vacinnate children at 4
years to provide better protection (due to increasing outbreaks), both
bottle and breastfed children are included.
I'm going to stop now, as I feel I might have justified what I was
originally trying to say.
Yours
Sara Bernard
The Netherlands
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