Any baby can have malaria at any age even as newborns if bitten by a mosquito. However, if the mum grew up in a malaria-endemic areas and has had many episodes of malaria herself, she will have become semi-immune to malaria like many of us in Nigeria. She can transfer some of these protective anti-malaria antibodies to her baby through the placenta in the womb. This can protect her baby from malaria for some time...the duration varies from one to another...may be as high as 6 months. That is not to say you should leave the baby to mosquitoes to feast on.