Can I still breastfeed if I’m Sick?

Updated February 3rd 2025

Every year around cold and flu season, I get questions about breastfeeding while sick. Moms will ask me what they can take for their cold while breastfeeding that won’t affect their milk supply or how to keep up their milk supply while they’re feeling so run down. So I’m going to share with you a few things I do personally when I have a cold and I’m breastfeeding.

What do I do?

1. Nurse (or pump) on demand or whatever your usual schedule/pattern is
2. Rest
3. Hydration, supplements and nutrition

Keep Nursing or Pumping

Try your best to continue nursing your baby on demand or following your current pumping schedule

This will keep supporting your milk supply

If your baby has caught your cold… continue nursing or bottle feeding whenever they cue because they’re likely having difficulty breathing. This may also mean lots of night time nursing and lots of “breaks” while feeding because babies need to be able to take a breath through their nose.

Breastmilk is alive and it’s filled with even more immune factors to support my baby through the cold. If you’re ever pumping/hand expressing while sick and it’s not milk your baby needs right away (meaning it’s going in the freezer) label the bag with ‘sick’ and use it for the next time!

REST when you can

I find this one to be the most difficult especially having more than one kid but resting will only help you recover faster.

When I’ve been sick, I ask for help whether that was from my husband or my mom to spend some time with our older kids so I could prioritize resting/sleeping as needed. The laundry, dishes and housework went to the wayside for a few days.

Hydration & Supplements:

I make sure I’m not just drinking water but also consuming minerals (electrolytes) to hydrate myself

I love adding a pinch of pink salt and lemon to water. I also make soup or bone broth, enjoy collagen hot chocolate, and tea.

I also take daily supplements prescribed by my ND but it includes vitamin C (safe for breastfeeding just watch out for how much your taking. At really high doses, your baby may end up with diarrhea)

When I’m sick I also take Echinacea because it is considered safe while breastfeeding and doesn’t run the risk of reducing supply like some of the over counter cold medicines do 

And if that just surprised you – over the counter cold medicines with a decongestant in them run the risk of dropping your milk supply. In a situation like that, you can try a saline nose spray instead.

I’ve linked a resource at the bottom of this post you can use to check the safety of medications while breastfeeding.

Eat Enough Food

Make sure you’re eating! Which can be tricky when you’re sick because you can lose your appetite but your body needs the food

Adding things like soups, protein smoothies, oatmeal, muffins – easy to make and easy on the stomach – can help you continue to eat enough calories which will be important for your recovery and your milk supply.

Drinking bone broth will provide your body with essential minerals to help you recover and adding calorie dense foods like nuts and seeds will help protect your supply by giving your body enough calories.

Breastfeeding Safe Medications

If you’re wondering what cold medicines are safe to take while breastfeeding check out e-lactancia.org It’s a very user friendly website where you can look up different medications, substances, herbs and vitamins and find out if they’re safe for breastfeeding or not.

You can also use InfantRisk.com as a great resource to find out if medications are safe and if they’ll reduce your milk supply or not (as some decongestants will do this to some people).