My Older Kids Are Getting Some Breastmilk For Breakfast––Here's Why

I always knew I would get the Covid vaccine the moment I became eligible. Sign me up and let’s end this freaking disaster ASAP.

I also knew that I would most likely still be breastfeeding my baby boy when I received my vaccine and I was all in. My sweet baby boy is now a rambunctious one year old. He was born April 2, 2020, right smack dab in the middle of the pandemic. It was a very scary and tumultuous time so you better believe I cried tears of happiness as I sat in the chair as the nurse gave me final dose of the Pfizer vaccine on April 1, 2021. It wasn’t lost on me either that my final vaccine dose was on the day I went into labor and the day before my son’s first birthday. It all came full circle.

I not only chose to get the vaccine for myself (and every single person I come into contact with) but for him. That cute little baby boy is now getting antibodies. Initial research shows that antibodies from the Covid vaccine are passed through breast milk and I am beyond excited by this news!

But what about my other two kids? At just five and three years old, they are too young to get the vaccine. We hope they will be eligible soon but until then, they remain unprotected and since this is the pandemic that just won’t quit (not that I know any different, this is my first pandemic), I’ve turned to drastic measures. It dawned on me that they too could get some of those amazing antibodies through my breast milk…

Okay. I can’t take all the credit. My wonderful sister in law pointed out while we were discussing the vaccine that if I have extra, I should give them some of my breast milk. Mind blown. I grabbed their milk cups and immediately mixed an ounce of my breast milk into each of their cups. It’s not a lot but I figure it is better than nothing.

I am lucky to be able to not only continue breastfeeding my baby boy but to be able to give what extra milk I do have to my other two children. So instead of beginning to wean my baby boy, I am nursing as usual, pumping when I can and doing a little extra here and there to provide breast milk for all three of my kids. And now every morning, I sneak an ounce of breast milk into their milk cups. They have no clue. I am not sure if they would even care? But if I can get them any amount of antibodies against this damn virus that has turned their little world upside down, I’m going to do it.

It’s funny how quickly your mindset and your parenting choices change from one minute to the next. If you had asked me a year, one month and two days ago if I would ever give my two older children breast milk, I would have laughed in your face. Crazy desperate times call for crazy desperate measures.