Understand all the Benefits of Breastfeeding
New parents want to give their babies the very best. When it comes to nutrition, the best first food for babies is breast milk.
More than two decades of research have established that breast milk is perfectly suited to nourish infants and protect them from illness.
Breast-fed infants have lower rates of hospital admissions, ear infections, diarrhea, rashes, allergies, and other medical problems than bottle-fed babies.
“There are 4,000 species of mammals, and they all make a different milk.
Human milk is made for human infants, and it meets all their specific nutrient needs,” says Ruth Lawrence, M.D., professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, N.Y., and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Health experts say increased breast-feeding rates would save consumers money, spent both on infant formula and in health-care dollars.
“We’ve known for years that the death rates in Third World countries are lower among breast-fed babies,” says Lawrence.
“Breast-fed babies are healthier and have fewer infections than formula-fed babies.”
Although breast-feeding is still the best nourishment for infants, infant formula is a close enough second that babies not only survive but thrive. Commercially prepared formulas are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The nutritional adequacy of commercially prepared formula is also ensured by the agency’s nutrient requirements and its safety by strict quality control procedures that require manufacturers to analyze each batch of formula for required nutrients, to test samples for stability during the shelf life of the product, to code containers to identify the batch, and to make all records available to FDA investigators.
The composition of infant formula is similar to breast milk, but it isn’t a perfect match, because the exact chemical makeup of breast milk is still unknown. Human milk is very complex, and scientists are still trying to unravel and understand what makes it such a good source of nutrition for rapidly growing and developing infants.
More than half the calories in breast milk come from fat, and the same is true for today’s infant formulas. This may be alarming to many American adults watching their intake of fat and cholesterol, especially when sources of saturated fats, such as coconut oil, are used in formulas.
But the low-fat diet recommended for adults doesn’t apply to infants.
While greater knowledge about human milk has helped scientists improve infant formula, it has become “increasingly apparent that infant formula can never duplicate human milk,” wrote John D. Benson, Ph.D, and Mark L. Masor, Ph.D., in the March 1994 issue of Endocrine Regulations.
Breast-fed babies have fewer illnesses because human milk transfers to the infant a mother’s antibodies to disease. It may be easier for a nursing mother to lose the pounds of pregnancy as well, since nursing uses up extra calories. And no one has to stumble to the refrigerator for a bottle and warm it while the baby cries.
Women who are breast-feeding can use barrier methods of birth control, such as condoms and diaphragms.
Silicone breast implants usually do not interfere with a woman’s ability to nurse, but if the implants leak, there is some concern that the silicone may harm the baby.
Some women alternate nursing at night and on weekends with daytime bottles of formula.
La Leche League, an international support organization for nursing mothers, has chapters in many cities that meet regularly to discuss breast-feeding problems and offer support.
If the mother cannot or chooses not to breast-feed, normal, full-term infants should get a conventional cow’s-milk-based formula, according to John N. Udall Jr., M.D., chief of nutrition and gastroenterology at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans.
However, adverse reactions to the protein in cow’s milk formula or symptoms of lactose intolerance (lactose is the carbohydrate in cow’s milk) may require switching to another type of formula, he says. Symptoms that may indicate an adverse reaction to cow’s milk protein include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and rash.
Also, babies don’t absorb some minerals, such as calcium, as efficiently from soy formulas. Therefore, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Healthy full-term infants should be given soy formula only when medically necessary.”
For a child who can’t tolerate cow’s milk protein, William J. Klish, M.D., a Baylor College of Medicine pediatrician and former chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition recommends the use of hydrolyzed-protein formula.
How do you feel about breast feeding and does all this technical information affect your opinion or decision?
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