Breastfeeding Puzzle

I’ve been breastfeeding Sze Yi for 15 months since birth, and then another 8 or 9 months after Sze Juin was born. But she’s still always sick. Even though she is just 3 years old now, but she’s been hospitalized 3 times – 1st time when she’s 5 months old due to acute bronchitis, 2nd time when she’s 35 months due to Hand Foot & Mouth Disease (HFMD), and now at 38 months due to pneumonia. What went wrong?

One thing I couldn’t fathom is that in theory, a breastfeeding child would have a better immune system, less tend to be infected and less prone to fall sick. But Sze Yi was the only child from her school to get the HFMD recently, and mind you, she’s still taking my breast milk. So do you know what agony that I’ve been thru now, trying to sort out this puzzle that has boggled my mind since a long time ago? Why breastfeeding didn’t work for me? Or my children? Ah yes, every time Sze Yi fell sick, a virus of some kind will surely lurk around – as if trying to find the right timing to attack my baby too. Sze Juin has been having fever the very night after Sze Yi was admitted to hospital last Saturday. We were worried because pneumonia could spread too. But it seemed that it’s another virus (the paed suspected Roseola since there were a few patients having this now). Maybe she got it from the hospital because we took her along when we brought Sze Yi to see the doctor.

Why, oh why? Now I felt embarrassed to tell people that I’m actually breastfeeding my children. I was always given the puzzled look – why are you still so adamant in breastfeeding and yet your children kept falling sick? Ah, maybe because I didn’t fully breastfeed Sze Yi? But hubby pointed out that it could be due to other reasons - like her sleeping habit (most likely the late night sleeps), her food intake, lifestyle, etc, etc? Or, can I just blame this all on the parents’ genes? Me & hubby, of course! Arrgghhh… I don’t know. No one could give me an answer, I’m sure. Maybe it’s a combination of all. Or maybe it’s due to my diet - I eat outside food a lot.

No time to ponder over this now – there’re still so many things to attend to. And more hospital trips to make. For now, I would try to think positive as how my mom put it, "Maybe it could be worse if you didn't breastfeed them in the first place?" I just hope this will end soon, and things will be very much better.