Breastfeeding: Opening the Door to your Child's Healthy Future

Breastfeeding: Opening the Door to your Child's Healthy Future 

Breastfeeding has innumerable benefits for your infant. It is simply the better choice! Women have been given the gift of providing their babies with the most nutritious food possible through breastfeeding. Your breast milk is uniquely formulated for your infant and changes to meet their needs as they grow. No laboratory can recreate or even come close to the brilliance of breast milk! Colostrum, also known as “liquid gold,” is the yellow milk you secrete shortly after birth and is the best nutrient source for your newborn. Packed with nutrients and antibodies, colostrum is the perfect food to give this little babe a healthy start. A few days after birth, your milk will become thinner, though it remains just as beneficial for the infant; your breast milk will alter itself to meet your infants changing needs as they get older.

One of the most rewarding benefits of breast milk is its ability to combat disease.

Breast milk helps

FIGHT & PREVENT DISEASE

It also lowers your infant’s susceptibility to several illnesses.

It decreases your infant’s risk of:

-Diarrhea
-Asthma
-Obesity
-Ear infections
-Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
-Leukemia
-SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)
-Bacterial Meningitis
-Bacteremia
-Respiratory Tract Infections
-Urinary Tract Infections

Additional Benefits of Breastfeeding:
-Breast milk contains the appropriate amount of fats, vitamins, minerals, sugar, water, and protein that your child requires. Formula cannot begin to compare!

-Breast milk offers antibodies that boost your child’s immune system

-Breast milk is easier for your child to digest; because the proteins in formula are made from cow’s milk, infants can struggle with digestion.

-Breastfeeding reduces the risk of milk contamination, as you do not have to sterilize bottles or nipples.

-According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, postneonatal infant mortality rates in the U.S. are reduced by 21% in breastfed babies.

-Breastfeeding encourages skin to skin contact between mother and child, which allows them to bond with you in a special way. Physical touch has also been proven to highly benefit your child’s health.

Breastfeeding and Premature Infants

-Premature infants are especially at risk for contracting infections and disease, so breast milk is certainly the best thing they can be given!

-According to the National Institutes of Health, premature babies that were given breast milk had higher mental development scores than low birth weight babies who did not; they were also less likely to be readmitted to the hospital after being sent home.



A Note from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
“Although economic, cultural, and political pressures often confound decisions about infant feeding, the AAP firmly adheres to the position that breastfeeding ensures the best possible health as well as the best developmental and psychosocial outcomes for the infant.”


The Best Choice

Breastfeeding is natural and one of the best decisions you can make for your child’s health. Doctors recommend breastfeeding until your baby reaches at least 6 months, but they strongly encourage you to continue as long as you can. From the unbeatable milk that helps prevent disease, to creating that special, intimate connection with your infant, breastfeeding is the simple choice. So what are you waiting for? Open the door to your child’s healthy future and breastfeed!


Resources: 

http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;115/2/496
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/oct2007/nichd-01.htm
http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/benefits/#a