Many mothers do not realize that breastfeeding is
probably the best thing you can do for your child. Breastfeeding supplies
vitamins and antibodies that your child needs to survive. It also contains
vitamins and minerals that are easier for your child to break down and
utilize than those of formulas. As your baby grows, it needs specific
antibodies in order to fight disease. Antibodies cannot be found in
formulas and your child cannot make her own. Antibodies allow your baby's
body to fight disease and prevent future diseases and medical problems. By
breastfeeding, you will have a happier and healthier baby. You and your
baby will be sick less often and it will prevent you from getting
postpartum anemia.
Breastfeeding also strengthens the bond between mother and child. It
releases the hormone oxytocin into the mother's body which stimulate
proper maternal behavior. Oxytocin also causes the uterus to contract,
prevents postpartum hemorrhage and postpartum depression, and provides for
the development of more milk as well as lowering the risk of ovarian
cancer. It will also allow you to loose weight rapidly after your baby is
born. Breastfeeding gives you more time to hold your baby and get that
much-needed skin contact and will satisfy your baby's emotional needs.
Breastfeeding will significantly reduce your chances of breast cancer and,
if your baby is a girl, will also reduce her chances of getting breast
cancer in the future. Breastfeeding also strengthens the immune systems of
the mother and child and removes toxins from your baby's body. It is more
digestible than formula and helps to prevent Crohn's disease and type I
diabetes. Formula feeding will increase your child's risk of developing
allergies later in life and during childhood and increases the risk of
SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), bacterial meningitis, cancer, and
childhood leukemia. Breastfeeding your baby will also protect against
vision defects, eye infections, eczema, osteoporosis, obesity,
cardiopulmonary distress, multiple sclerosis, and cavities. It also
prevents your child's bowel movements from becoming runny or smelly. It
will sweeten the smell of your baby as well.
For the mother, breast feeding is free, is always the right temperature,
and always has the perfect balance of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and
vitamins. You do not have to wake up at all hours of the night to fix
bottles and mix and heat formula. If your baby sleeps next to you, as
doctors suggest, you can simply roll over, let your baby latch on and go
back to sleep. It is also easier to feed your baby in public. If you worry
about other people seeing, simply put your baby under your shirt or
purchase a sling in which to carry your baby. These can simply be draped
over you and your child while you are breastfeeding. Breastfeeding can act
as a type of natural tranquilizer for the mother and will calm you and
keep you stress-free. You will not have any bottles to tote around and you
will find that mothers who breastfeed spend far fewer dollars on trips to
the doctor. You, your child and your mate will be able to receive more
sleep. Think how appreciative the father will be that he does not have to
get up every other time that the baby needs to be fed.
Breast milk is safer for your baby. It is never recalled for contaminants,
it does not contain any type of bacteria, it does not need to be
sterilized, and does not contain harmful cow hormones which have been
known to cause infantile diabetes. Breast milk does not contain
contaminated water and contains no genetically engineered chemicals found
in formulas and tap water. Breastfeeding allows for proper speech
development and cognitive and social development. Formula-fed babies
become sickly and may develop numerous diseases later in life. If you are
concerned about the environment you should know that breastfeeding reduces
the trash from having to use lots of bottles, packaging and formula
containers. By helping the Earth, you are showing your undying love for
your child.Title image: Ecomother.com
Need more
reasons to breastfeed your baby?
.
 Because more and more women are now breastfeeding their babies, more
and more are also finding that they enjoy breastfeeding enough to want to
continue longer than the usual few months they initially thought they
would. UNICEF has long encouraged breastfeeding for two years and longer,
and the American Academy of Pediatrics is now on record as encouraging
mothers to nurse at least one year and as long after as both mother and
baby desire. Even the Canadian Paediatric Society, in its latest feeding
statement acknowledges that women may want to breastfeed for two years or
longer. Breastfeeding to 3 and 4 years of age has been common in much of
the world until recently, and it is still common in many societies for
toddlers to breastfeed.
Why should
breastfeeding continue past six months?
Because mothers and babies often enjoy breastfeeding a lot. Why stop an
enjoyable relationship?
But it is said that breastmilk has no value
after six months.
Perhaps this is said, but it is wrong. That anyone can say such a thing
only shows how ignorant so many people in our society are about
breastfeeding. Breastmilk is, after all, milk. Even after six months, it
still contains protein, fat, and other nutritionally important and
appropriate elements which babies and children need. Breastmilk still
contains immunologic factors that help protect the baby. In fact, some
immune factors in breastmilk that protect the baby against infection are
present in greater amounts in the second year of life than in the first.
This is, of course as it should be, since children older than a year are
generally exposed to more infection. Breastmilk still contains factors
that help the immune system to mature, and which help the brain, gut, and
other organs to develop and mature.
It has been well shown that children in daycare who are still
breastfeeding have far fewer and less severe infections than the children
who are not breastfeeding. The mother thus loses less work time if she
continues nursing her baby once she is back at her paid work.
It is interesting that formula company marketing pushes the use of
formula (a rather imperfect copy of the real thing) for a year, yet
implies that breastmilk (from which the imperfect copy is copied) is only
worthwhile for 6 months or even less ("the best nutrition for newborns").
Too many health professionals have taken up the refrain.
I have heard that the immunologic factors
in breastmilk prevent the baby from developing his own immunity if I
breastfeed past six months.
This is untrue; in fact, this is absurd. It is unbelievable how so many
people in our society twist around the advantages of breastfeeding and
turn them into disadvantages. We give babies immunizations so that they
are able to defend themselves against the real infection. Breastmilk also
allows the baby to be fight off infections. When the baby fights off these
infections, he becomes immune. Naturally.
But I want my baby to become independent.
And breastfeeding makes the toddler dependent? Don't believe it. The
child who breastfeeds until he weans himself (usually from 2 to 4 years),
is generally more independent, and, perhaps more importantly, more secure
in his independence. He has received comfort and security from the breast,
until he is ready to make the step himself to stop. And when he makes that
step himself, he knows he has achieved something, he knows he has moved
ahead. It is a milestone in his life.
Often we push children to become “independent” too quickly. To sleep
alone too soon, to wean from the breast too soon, to do without their
parents too soon, to do everything too soon. Don't push and the child will
become independent soon enough. What's the rush? Soon they will be leaving
home. [Do] You want them to leave home at 14?
Of course, breastfeeding can, in some situations, be used to foster an
over-dependent relationship. But so can food and toilet training. The
problem is not the breastfeeding. This is another issue.
What else?
Possibly the most important aspect of nursing a toddler is not the
nutritional or immunologic benefits, important as they are. I believe the
most important aspect of nursing a toddler is the special relationship
between child and mother. Breastfeeding is a life affirming act of love.
This continues when the baby becomes a toddler. Anyone without prejudices,
who has ever observed an older baby or toddler nursing can testify that
there is something almost magical, something special, something far beyond
food going on. A toddler will sometimes spontaneously, for no obvious
reason, break into laughter while he is nursing. His delight in the breast
goes far beyond a source of food. And if the mother allows herself,
breastfeeding becomes a source of delight for her as well, far beyond the
pleasure of providing food. Of course, it's not always great, but what is?
But when it is, it makes it all so worthwhile.
And if the child does become ill or does get hurt (and they do as they
meet other children and become more daring), what easier way to comfort
the child than breastfeeding? I remember nights in the emergency
department when mothers would walk their ill, non nursing babies or
toddlers up and down the halls trying, often unsuccessfully, to console
them, while the nursing mothers were sitting quietly with their comforted,
if not necessarily happy, babies at the breast. The mother comforts the
sick child with breastfeeding, and the child comforts the mother by
breastfeeding.
Handout #21. Toddler nursing. Revised January 2000
Written by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC
May be copied and distributed without further permission. |
