In the first moments, your new little one seems more like an alien than a bundle of joy, but after a bath for baby and a few deep breaths for the new parents, your little angel looks their part. Their little red face is all scrunched up, and the sounds that voice from their puckered little mouth are the most precious notes you could ever hope for. You ache any time the nurses take them for tests, and you deny offers from well meaning friends and family who offer to hold them while you get some sleep. All you want to do is be with your new baby, and you'll forego food, water and sleep to do just that! Breastfeeding Your Way To A Healthy Baby
You may have heard about the recent comments about breastfeeding that Barbra Walters made on the popular talk show “The View.” When the subject of breastfeeding came up on the show, Walters shared a story about a woman who had sat next to her on a plane; she said, “She didn’t cover the baby with a blanket. It made us uncomfortable.”
That comment turned out to be a very big mistake for Walters because the next week activists from around the country showed up outside the studio to hold a pubic “nurse-in.” This might have been taking it a little far but it is not hard to understand why so many women would be upset about her comments. Breastfeeding women should not be made to feel uncomfortable or ashamed about feeding their babies when they need to be fed. On that note, here are several reasons why breast-feeding is so good for your child.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, extensive research, especially in recent years, documents diverse and compelling advantages to infants, mothers, families, and society from breastfeeding and the use of human milk for infant feeding. These include health, nutritional, immunologic, developmental, psychological, social, economic, and environmental benefits.
Breastfeeding offers several health advantages to your baby:
- Improved Eyesight and Hand/Eye Coordination
Breastfeed babies have to use their hands and eyes to figure out the distance between their mouth and mother’s nipple. This helps them develop good hand/eye coordination, especially if they are switched from one breast to another. - Jaw and Teeth Development and Fewer Cavities
- Since babies who nurse have to work harder than bottle fed babies to draw milk into their mouths this strengthens their jaw muscles and promotes better tooth alignment. Breastfeeding babies draw milk towards the back of their throat, away from their teeth. Formula from a bottle tends to stay in a baby’s mouth, exposing gums and teeth to more sugar. Special enzymes in breast milk (those are absent in formula) also reduce the build-up of decay by quickening the breakdown of milk sugars.
- Less Gas
- Breast milk is lower in protein than formula, making it easier for baby to digest, and it is easier on the baby’s stomach. This means gas, constipation, and stomach upset that can be painful for a baby.
- May Reduce Risk of SIDS: Reports from the National Institute of Health indicate that breastfeeding may reduce a baby’s risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. There is still no definitive answer to why, but one theory suggests that the breast milk may protect infants from certain infections that can trigger SIDS.
Not only is breastfeeding healthy for you baby but you can benefit from it as well. Breastfeeding postpones menstruation; it delays the reoccurrence of a woman’s menstrual cycle for several months. Breastfeeding lowers the risk of cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis. Less exposure to estrogen over their lifetimes might also account for why breastfeeding women report fewer cases of breast cancer. The results of a study published in the International Family Planning Perspectives (2002) indicate that a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer is reduced by four percent for every twelve months she breastfeeds, regardless of her reproductive history.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says that “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.”
