Surprise, surprise - a few days after our son got sick, my wife came down with the cold as well. It's a bit of a worst case scenario to get sick when you are breastfeeding, as "mum" is still needed for the feeds no matter how she is feeling. So how can dads help their partners while they are not well?

When my wife got sick I briefly wondered whether I should focus my extra attention on our baby or her? (like when you are on the plane and they go through the emergency procedure ... "make sure your mask is fitted before helping infants"). I concluded that both of them needed extra attention.

First things first - I made sure we had all the remedies in the house that she is allowed to take while breast feeding. The main one being Paracetamol ... apparently you are not supposed to take vitamin supplements etc. while breast feeding. Other standard cold remedy drugs are not suitable either so we mainly used Paracetamol and a lot of hot lemons with honey.

During the day I tried to take our baby off her as much as possible so she could get some rest, which worked reasonably well. At night though it got a bit more tricky as he is still not sleeping through and feeding helps him settle. So I couldn't really do much about the nocturnal disturbance and I certainly wasn't going to start control crying again while half the family was sick. In the end it came down to just being extra attentive to her needs (tissue supply and removal duty, lots of hot/cold drinks, back rubs and cooking nice food).

Our little man didn't really understand what was going on and naturally expected the same kind of attention and treatment as always. He only just got over his cold so he was still a bit off colour himself. Nothing a bit of extra play time with dad couldn't fix though :-) I have to say that spending lots of time with him outdoors was definitly a big bonus (for him and me). It helped him recover fully and it probably prevented me from getting ill again by being exposed to all the germs in our house.

Fortunately the really bad phase of the cold only lasted for about 3 days and it was partly over the weekend so I was able to help out a lot. I think for more serious illnesses it is definitely a good idea to take some time off to help out at home though.

Full credits to my wife for putting up with the whole thing - it must be quite hard to keep feeding and attending to the needs of a baby while you are not feeling well.

-Stef

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