I don't have easy access to studies, medical library but seem to
remember that quite a lot has been done re. importance of continuing
to feed through diarrhoea, illness in Bangladesh and/or India.

My second child had a bad whack of probably Rota virus when she was
about 18 months.  My family doctor, a wonderful woman, middle-aged
and fairly conservative, encouraged me to get as much fluid in as she
would take and if that was mostly breastmilk that was fine.  She
really wasn't interested in anything else, she'd feed and oops almost
immediately.  Doc said to keep feeding anyway and phoned me a couple
of times a day to see how she was doing.  We managed to keep her out
of hospital, although she was a bag of bones after two weeks of
losing fluid both ends - ie. she lost a lot of weight but didn't get
dehydrated.  I'm not up on the physiology of this.

Doc's daughter produced their first grandchild last Feb. and Doc
proudly told me the other day "We're still great breastfeeders you
know!"
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Lynn Moony
Johannesburg, South Africa
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