How does breast milk change when a baby is sick?
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First, it’s important to know that any antibodies that currently exist in a breastfeeding parent can be passed to baby via passive immunity. For example :If a nursing parent had a chickenpox vaccine (or had the chicken pox) at any point in their life, those antibodies will be present in the breast milk. As long as the baby has some breast milk in their system, they will have some protection from the chicken pox. Once a baby doesn’t actively have breast milk somewhere in their digestive system, the immunity is gone.
When it comes to illness, there’s another layer to consider. In short, breast milk can change when household members are sick, because if the breastfeeding parent is fighting off any virus, those antibodies can appear in the breast milk, just as all antibodies do. But it likely has virtually nothing to do with the baby being sick, except for the fact that the baby may have introduced the illness to their parent (and by extension, their parent’s immune system). Backwash theory is the theory that the baby’s saliva can change the antibodies present in breast milk, but there’s little actual scientific evidence to support it.
[This link](https://www.skepticalob.com/2015/09/mothers-and-babies-communicate-through-breastmilk-at-the-moment-thats-wishful-thinking.html) has information that is well beyond ELI5, but does explain a lot of the myths about breastfeeding.
The article [Everybody calm down about breastfeeding ](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/everybody-calm-down-about-breastfeeding/) doesn’t specifically address backwash theory, but does explain some of the myths about breast milk antibodies and why these studies are often so flawed. This one is a lot more layperson friendly.
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