Getting through illness while breastfeeding

Being unwell while caring for a small child has never sounded fun (or even bearable, really) but even with reasonable expectations reality can be cruel. I came down with some kind of horrible lergy on Monday which has thrown our week out completely. Luckily for us Young Sir seems to have avoided my bugs so far (as has my other half) which made things easier - but even if all you have to do is feed, it's still pretty gruelling having other demands on you when all you want to do is wrap yourself in a cocoon and sleep for a week.

I also can't recall ever feeling quite as wiped out and woozy when ill - I suspect the breastfeeding, which is a significant energy-guzzler, is to blame for that.

Unsuprisingly it's pretty common for milk supply to decrease during illness - in my case I struggled to drink, let alone eat (though only for a day or so) so my body did seem to slow down a bit on providing food for the small one. Which of course made him antsy about feeding, which I wasn't much in the mood for!

As with most what-do-we-do-here moments in parenting, there are varying and opposing opinions on this, but we had some spare expressed milk in the freezer so we supplemented a little, which helped keep everyone a bit more calm. And we refined the lying-down feed which definitely helped me get through. And Young Sir had lots of gummy grins for me when I was at my worst - like he knew and wanted to make me feel better.

Its common knowledge that antibodies in your milk can boost your baby's immunity, but I hadn't realised that had a more or less instant effect meaning often breastfed babies skip viruses which bowl the rest of the family over. I would definitely choose having to feed the well baby through my illness than him being sick and fussy - even if I didn't have to do the feeding part.

I'm very glad we live in a country with reasonable family sick leave provisions, as we've used two days this week and they were very necessary. I honestly don't know what I would have done if my husband had been away or unable to take leave - so I have much respect to anyone who has had to cope with that awful situation. An example, perhaps, of how modern communities don't serve us when we're vulnerable so well. We have several sets of awesome neighbours, and I could definitely call in some favours but helping me care for a baby while laid up in bed with a virus seems a bit much to ask.

Anyway, I hear that once Young Sir starts daycare (likely to be in the New Year) we can expect plenty more of this, except he won't be dodging the bullets anymore - so I guess that was our practice run.

What has your worst illness-related parenting period been so far? Has the whole family been laid up at once?