Breast is Best

Benefits to Baby

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There are a myriad of health benefits to your child too.

Remember the idea about talking to your partner about your "health histories"? The following are conditions or diseases that may be reduced or eliminated with breastfeeding:

  1. Insulin Dependent Diabetes: In one study, people who had never been breastfed were thirty percent more likely to have diabetes. The longer the period of breastfeeding, the better the odds. Children breastfed longer than one year were half as likely to have developed diabetes.

  2. Heart Disease: The type of fat and cholesterol in breastmilk appears to protect against blood vessels changes that late lead to heart disease.

  3. Allergies and Asthma: Babies exclusively breastfed for four to six months develop fewer food allergies because antibodies in the colostrum and milk line the stomach. This prevents bacterial and allergy triggering protein molecules from crossing into the baby's blood. Infants are unable to make these antibodies themselves until they are 4 to 6 months old.

  4. Face, Jaw and Tooth Development: The Canadian Dental Association has recognized that breastfeeding requires the baby to use suction to draw the nipple to the back of his mouth. He then rhythmically presses his jaws against the tissue behind the nipple, expressing milk into his mouth. His tongue covers his lower jaw and darts back and forth, further massaging milk from the breast. This complex action exercises the muscles of this face, jaws and tongue.

  5. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): While there are several factors that are involved with this syndrome, research has shown that there is a lower SIDS rate among breastfed babies.

  6. Last but not least, breastmilk has been shown to make babies less prone to:

    • intestinal infections

    • blood poisoning

    • meningitis

    • pneumonia or bronchitis

    • middle ear infections

    • kidney infections

While formula companies have worked hard to imitate properties of breastmilk, at best, it is an incomplete copy.
(Acknowledgement to Francie Hickmont, Mother Mates)

E-Mail: Breast Is Best

Created by Ana Tirolese, R.G.D. E-mail: Ana Tirolese
Last update: November25, 1999


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