I read over a few posts/comments I made this morning while under the influence of Nyquil. Heh. My drowsy babblings were amusing, and at times, riddled with typos or just missing words or had words that didn’t make sense together. It’s scary to think that one dose of Nyquil can do that to me.
While on the way home this morning, I got to thinking about breastfeeding and my own health and that of my husband’s. I was breastfed until I was six months old. I found out (rather recently, actually) from my mother that she stopped at that point, due to stress. Apparently I was very sick as a baby, and in and out of the hospital with asthma attacks and seizures from infancy until I was two or so. Fast forward to now. Despite being breastfed for six months, I don’t consider my immune system to be all that good. I seem to get just about every cold, infection and stomach bug that goes around, and I get laid pretty low by a lot of them.
Then there is my husband. He wasn’t breastfed at all, and his mother smoked all of her life, including throughout her five pregnancies and then continuing to huff and puff around her kids and onwards until today. Yet he rarely gets sick. And when he does, it’s minor. Although he does have a chronic cough/throat clearing thing, and I really feel that it’s from his mother smoking. The fact that his four siblings all have the same chronic cough/throat clearing thing only strengthens my feelings on that.
To further the irony, I eat much healthier than my husband does, and I take vitamins. He does neither.
Perhaps it’s a fluke. Alyssa was breastfed for ten months, and hasn’t really gotten sick. The most she’ll get is a sniffle or two here or there, and then she’s over it. Or that stomach bug she had last March, but was over it within a day. Ryan hasn’t been sick at all. And that’s impressive, considering I’ve had two stomach bugs and two colds since his birth.
What about you? How strong is your immune system?
I was breastfed for a year, I believe… and I had an AWESOME immune system until I got pregnant and had Taylor.
Since having her it’s like my immune system has taken a slight fall. I catch things more easily and little sinus infections and colds tend to stick around longer. I still don’t get super sick – but there is a noticeable difference.
My immune system is pretty good, I think. I’ve just been around Josh and Dylan the past week – both of them sick – and I haven’t gotten the slightest sniffle or anything.
My mother only breastfed me for about 2 months – due to the fact that she didn’t produce enough milk or something. Same with my brother – he’s had horrible allergies all of his life. Mine, on the other hand, aren’t all that bad.
Breastfeeding is the best thing for a baby, but regardless of that fact, everyone’s immune system is different and different things can trigger it to make it come into play (or not, in some cases.) It’s hard to judge these things sometimes.
I’m pretty much like you. I have no immune system. I don’t get it either. I mean the whole immunity issue. My mom didn’t breast feed me, she probably did everything extremely wrong judging from living with her and also the way she does things with my own daughter and has to be told not to do them. She smoked the entire time I was in her, and still does to this day. Despite the fact that the doctors told her that I had extreme asthma and bronchitis and it was only bothering around our house or other smokers houses. We never had the right types of food in our home.
I get everything and it knocks me off my butt when I get it. Yet, my daughter was not breastfed either. She also had the smoking mother, uh god knows what else she did while pregnant because even if she admits to it once she’ll forget and lie about it the next time. My daughter was also starved at times, and the kid never hardly gets sick. She has some allergies that seem to flare up, but other than that she seems resilient to everything. It amazes me.
I was breastfed for about a month. I have a low immune system and get sick twice from the same virus. I wil get sick, pass it around to my family members and then get sick again before it leaves the house.
My daughter was breastfed not strictly for 3 months and she also has a low immune system.
I believe breastfeeding boosts your immune system, but I also believe there are other factors, such as your blood type. My blood type is a horrible one and I have no antibodies in my blood. I can take any blood type through a transfusion and my body wont reject it.
My mother’s a smoker and I wasn’t breastfed. I only get a mild cold once a year. Even then I tackle it with drugs and fluids. I also take vitamins, regardless I only get sick once and that’s when I’m around someone that’s sick. I always seem to come in contact with a germ spreader.
My immune system sucks,
I’m healthy and eat the proper stuff…But, during the winter I almost never NOT have a stuffy nose (and get about two-six bad colds every winter), stomach bug wise I’m horrible with those. I wasn’t breathfed, and perhaps thats why? I intend to breastfed my child.