At 27 days old, a newborn baby girl in South Korea was infected with COVID-19 but was discharged after 18 days with no special treatment other than breastfeeding.

According to an article on koreabiomed.com, the baby girl was believed to have contracted the virus from her family in early March and is the youngest COVID-19 patient in Korea.

A representative from SMG-SNU Boramae Hospital said that the newborn girl showed only mild nasal congestion with a slight fever of 37.6 degrees Celsius on the first day of hospitalisation. However, her body temperature rose to 38.4 degrees the following day and was accompanied with coughing.

The newborn was confirmed that her lungs were in good shape. She did not have difficulty breathing, and a series of chest X-rays showed no abnormalities.

Her mother who also tested positive for COVID-19 continued to breastfeed her baby since there was no virus detected in her mother’s milk.

The medical team did not administer any antiviral or antibacterial drugs throughout the treatment.

After 13 days of hospitalisation, the baby girl was free from major symptoms such as coughing or nasal congestion.

Since then, the hospital ran the Covid-19 test on the newborn two times, and the final results came out as negative. After 18 days of hospitalisation, the baby girl returned home with her fully recovered mother on March 26.

Researchers caution, however, that this outcome cannot be generalised because the immune systems of newborns are unique.

Can women with COVID-19 breastfeed?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), close contact, and early exclusive breastfeeding helps a baby to thrive.

Mothers who test positive for COVID-19 can still breastfeed her baby if she wishes to do so. To continue breastfeeding their baby, they should:

• Practice respiratory hygiene during feeding, wearing a mask where available;
• Wash hands before and after touching the baby;
• Routinely clean and disinfect surfaces they have touched.

View this post on Instagram

Close contact and early, exclusive breastfeeding helps a baby to thrive. Therefore, women 👩🏼🧕🏼👩🏽‍🦱 with #COVID19 can breastfeed if they wish to do so. They should: ✔Practice respiratory hygiene and wear a mask ✔Wash Open hands before and after touching the baby ✔Routinely clean and disinfect surfaces If a woman with COVID-19 is too unwell to breastfeed, SWIPE RIGHT ➡ for more advice from WHO! #coronavirus

A post shared by World Health Organization (@who) on Mar 22, 2020 at 3:47am PDT

What can I do if I’m too unwell to breastfeed my baby?

If you are too unwell to breastfeed your baby due to COVID-19 or other complications, you should be supported to safely provide your baby with breastmilk in a way possible, available, and acceptable to you. This could include:

• Expressing milk;
• Relactation;
• Donor human milk.

For more information on COVID-19 and breastfeeding, head on the World Health Organization website.