Jakarta (ANTARA) – Women who test positive for COVID-19 can still give breast milk to their babies, either directly or with the help of a pipette, FKUI community nutritionist Dr. Tan Shot Yen has said.
“The baby actually gets the benefit of being given breast milk from a mother who is infected with COVID-19. Why? Because the mother’s milk already contains antibodies,” Yen told ANTARA here on Thursday.
She argued that when a child is separated from a mother who is infected with COVID-19, there is no guarantee that the child will not be infected from someone else who takes care of him/her.
However, she advised mothers with severe COVID-19 symptoms to breastfeed their babies indirectly.
Indirect breastfeeding can be done by pumping milk and putting it into a sterile container, and using a pipette or a small spoon for feeding the baby, she explained.
The nutritionist advised mothers not to give breast milk using a pacifier, saying that could interfere with direct breastfeeding once they recover from COVID-19.
“If the baby is breastfed using a pacifier when the mother has to undergo self-isolation for two to three weeks, the baby will refuse to be breastfed directly when the mother has recovered, as the baby will be confused by the shape of the mother’s nipple,” Yen expounded.
Yen, who is also a member of the Maternal and Child Health Movement (GKIA), said that children do not need to be separated from parents undergoing self-isolation.
However, parents infected with COVID-19 must wear two-layer masks while undergoing self-isolation with other family members, she said.
“It is possible that these children will experience stress when they are separated from their parents. There is no guarantee that children will not catch COVID-19 when they are entrusted to someone else,” she said.
Therefore, children should not need to be separated from their parents. What needs to be emphasized is that parents who are infected with COVID-19 are required to wear masks so that the potential for spreading the virus to children is getting smaller, the nutritionist said.
Source: Antara News