When we vaccinate our baby we are always warned that he may have a fever in the later hours as a reaction to the vaccine. A study published about it in the journal Pediatrics has shown that breastfed babies have less fever after vaccination than those who receive mixed or artificial lactation.
Immunization of the vaccine acts as a mild disease, which is why many children have a few tenths of fever and loss of appetite after being vaccinated. High fever is rare, only 1 to 2 percent of babies suffer.
What scientists could see is that babies fed exclusively with breast milk are more protected against fever after vaccination
To do this, they followed 450 babies who were vaccinated 3 and 6 months after the first and second dose of a combination of vaccines (against diphtheria, tetanus, convulsant cough, hepatitis B, polio, Haemophilus type B influenzae and pneumococcal infection).
Their fever was controlled the day they were vaccinated and for the next three days. They realized that babies fed with breast milk respond differently to vaccines than babies fed with formula milk because breast milk would reduce the production of inflammatory proteins that are released after vaccination.
Among babies who had more than 38 degrees after being vaccinated, 53% were fed only with formula milk, 31% with mixed breastfeeding and 25% with exclusive breastfeeding.
The risk of having a fever in the exclusive breastfeeding group was 54 percent lower than in the bottle-fed group and, in the case of partial breastfeeding, the risk decrease was 42 percent.
According to researchers at the University of Naples, breastfed babies are not only protected against the reaction of vaccines by the nutritional characteristics of breast milk but also by the protective effect, the tranquility and well-being that breastfeeding gives them.
Curious is the relationship between the baby's feeding and the immune system's response to vaccines. I had never thought about it, but I don't know if by chance or by causality any of my three daughters fed exclusively with breast milk ever had a fever after vaccines.
In your case, have your babies had a fever after vaccination? What type of feed were they receiving at that time?
