• Question: why are babies amune to flus?

    Asked by raashidabaconidiot to Alexander, Josh, Serena, Simone, Stuart on 25 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Josh Makepeace

      Josh Makepeace answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      Hi raashidabaconidiot! So, babies are not necessarily immune to the flu. When babies are very little, their immune system is still developing, so they get some of their immune protection from their mum. While the baby is is the womb, the mother’s immune system protects it. After it’s born, when a baby breast-feeds, some of the mum’s immune system is transferred to the baby through the milk (particularly the anitbodies which make you immune to particular illnesses). So if the mum is immune to a particular type of flu, then chances are the baby will be too. However, if the mum isn’t immune, the baby can still get the flu.

      Hope this helps, thanks for the question 🙂

Comments