While it is now well established that breastfeeding is the best option for a newborn baby as well as the mother, research keeps adding to the sum of our knowledge about all the different reasons why and how it is so good.
Now a study tells us that as many as 900 babies (to say nothing of billions of dollars) a year could be saved if exclusively breast fed for the first 6 months of life.
The benefits of breastfeeding are still underappreciated feel experts and could help prevent a number of illnesses that are commonly seen in newborn babies: ear infections, SIDS, asthma, stomach viruses, juvenile diabetes, and even childhood leukemia it is thought.
This is because of the antibodies that are contained in breast milk.
Further benefits of breast milk can not only fight infections, it can impact the levels of insulin in blood which can positively impact the child’s risk of getting obese or diabetic.
In purely economic terms as well, it is estimated that about $13 billion are indirectly lost due to the fact of less breastfeeding. Cost of the illnesses themselves include hospitalization and treatment for diseases that could have been prevented by breastfeeding.
Source: Associated Press
