How Breast Feeding Helps In Baby’s Health

By Amudha Eswari,

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Starting from nipple sore, there are a lot of problems that mothers face while breastfeeding. Is it really worthy to undergo all these problems? The answer is definitely yes. There are a lot of scientific researches that prove that there is no food in the world that is as nutritious and healthy as mother’s milk for an infant. No matter which brand of formula you use or how good you sterilize the feeding bottles, your baby would thrive better with your milk.

Helping Baby’s Health In The First Year Of Its Life

Starting from birth to the first birthday of the child, the mother’s milk is providing a lot of advantages to the child. At least, the child should be fed with mother’s milk for the first six months of its life. The advantages are,

• Breastfeeding strengthens the immunity power of the baby. Through the milk, the child gets all the antibodies from the mother making the child resistant to many infections and also improves the effectiveness of the vaccines.

• A breastfed child is less likely to incur any respiratory related disorder than a formula fed child

• Breastfeeding decreases the frequency of ear infection, diarrhea, constipation and other allergies

• The sudden infant death syndrome is less common in children who are fed with mother’s milk.

• Breast milk has less amount of insulin in it than the formula. High dose of insulin would increase fat.

• Breast milk induces the secretion of leptin in the baby. This would help in regulating appetite.

Advantages To The Child Later In Its Life

If a mother feeds a child for the first six months, it does not connote that the baby is benefitted only for that period. Even after the breastfeeding is stopped and the child is introduced to the solid foods, the benefits of breastfeeding would linger.

• The kids would have less frequent dental cavities

• They are less likely to become obese in the later age than the formula fed child as the formula is filled with hormones. Moreover, the breastfed children would have good eating patterns than the formula fed children.

• The children who are breast fed for the first few months are less likely to develop insulin dependent diabetes.

• It is found that the mother’s milk would reduce the risk of cancer in children less than 15 years of age.

• They would be less likely to have high blood pressure, heart diseases and psychological problems in the future. The breast fed babies have more IQ than the formula fed children.

Infant formula is not the same as that of breast milk. Breastfeeding the baby would not make the breast saggy. The breasts sag even if the mother feeds or not. This is due to the weight the mother reached during pregnancy. Other methods have to be included to avoid sagging. Unless the mother has some medical conditions that would prevent her from feeding the child, the breast milk is the best food that is designed by the nature for the baby.