Is Breast Feeding Best For Babies

New parents aspire to provide their babies with the very best. When it comes to nourishment, the top first food for babies is breast milk.

More than 20 years of research has established that breast milk is completely suited to nurturing infants and safeguarding them from illness. Breast-fed babies have fewer rates of hospital admissions, ear infections, diarrhea, rashes, allergies, and other medical troubles compared to bottle-fed babies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants be breast-fed for 6 to 12 months. The only satisfactory option to breast milk is infant formula. Solid foods can be introduced at 4 to 6 months; however, a baby should drink breast milk or formula, not cow's milk, for a full year.

In 1993, 55.9 percent of American mothers breast-fed their babies in the hospital. Only 19 percent continued breast-feeding when their babies were 6 months old. Government and private health experts are working to lift those numbers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration are conducting a study on infant feeding practices as part of its continuing objective to improve nutrition in the United States. The study is looking at the length of time mothers breast-feed and how they introduce formula or other foods.

Health experts say greater breast-feeding rates would save consumers money, spent on infant formula and in health-care. It possibly will save lives as well. In Third World countries, death rates are lower among breast-fed babies. Breast-fed babies are healthier and have fewer infections than formula-fed babies have.

Human Milk for Human Babies
The principal advantage of breast milk is nutritional. Human milk contains just the correct quantity of fatty acids, lactose, water, and amino acids for human digestion, brain development, and growth.

Cow's milk contains a different kind of protein than breast milk. This is excellent for calves, but human babies can have difficulty digesting it. Bottle-fed infants are inclined to be fatter than breast-fed infants are, but not necessarily healthier.

Breast-fed babies have fewer illnesses because a mother's antibodies to disease are transferred to the baby via human milk. About eighty percent of the cells in breast milk are macrophages, cells that kill bacteria, fungi and viruses. There are a number of illnesses that Breast-fed babies are protected from, in varying degrees, including pneumonia, botulism, bronchitis, staphylococcal infections, influenza, ear infections, and German measles. In addition, mothers create antibodies to whatever disease is present in their environment, making their milk custom-designed to battle the diseases their babies are exposed to as well.

A breast-fed baby's digestive tract contains large quantities of Lactobacillus bifidus, helpful bacteria that prevent the development of harmful organisms. Human milk direct from the breast is always sterile, never tainted by contaminated water or dirty bottles, which can lead to diarrhea in the infant.

Human milk contains at least 100 ingredients not present in formula. Babies are never allergic to their mother's milk, although they may have a response to something the mother eats. If the mother eliminates it from her diet, the problem resolves itself.

Nursing may have mental benefits for the baby as well, creating an early attachment connecting mother and child. At birth, infants see only 12 to 15 inches, the space between a nursing baby and its mother's face. Studies have found that infants as young as 1 week favor the smell of their own mother's milk. If nursing pads are soaked with breast milk and positioned in their cribs, they turn their faces in the direction of the one that smells familiar.

Numerous psychologists believe the nursing baby enjoys a feeling of safety from the warmth and company of the mother, particularly when there is skin-to-skin contact during feeding. Parents of bottle-fed infants might be tempted to prop bottles in the baby's mouth, providing no human contact during feeding, however a nursing mother must cuddle her baby closely many times throughout the day. Nursing becomes more than a method to feed a baby; it is a source of warmth and comfort.
Benefits to Mothers

Breast-feeding is great for new mothers as well as for their babies. It may be easier for a nursing mother to lose the pounds of pregnancy since nursing uses up additional calories. There are no bottles to sterilize and no formula to buy, measure and mix. Lactation also stimulates the uterus to contract back to its original size.

Because a nursing mother must sit down, put her feet up and relax every few hours to feed the baby she is forced to get much needed rest. There is no need to stumble to the refrigerator for a bottle and warm it while the baby cries. If she is lying down, a mother can doze while she nurses.

Nursing is also nature's contraceptive--although not a very reliable one. Ovulation is suppressed by frequent nursing, making it less likely for a nursing mother to menstruate, ovulate, or get pregnant; however, here are no guarantees, mothers who do not want more children right away should use contraception even while nursing. All barrier methods of birth control such as hormone injections and implants are safe during nursing. The labeling on birth control pills states if possible another form of contraception should be used until the baby is weaned.

When is Formula Necessary
There are very few medical reasons why a mother should not breast-feed.
Most common illnesses, such as colds, flu, skin infections, or diarrhea are not passed through breast milk. In fact, if a mother has an illness, her breast milk will contain antibodies to it that will help protect her baby from those same illnesses.

A few viruses can pass through breast milk, HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is one of them. Women who are HIV positive should not breast-feed.