Breastmilk: Baby’s Best First Nutrition
March is National Nutrition Month®, a great time to focus on good nutrition for all ages, including the very youngest members of the family.
Based on years of research, leading healthcare associations and agencies agree that breastfeeding is the best way to nourish babies, and breastmilk is a baby’s best first food.
As part of our commitment to nurturing babies and growing healthy families, Childbirth Graphics features a dedicated line of
breastfeeding education materials and models to help new parents achieve breastfeeding success.
Read on to learn a few key facts about breastfeeding, and discover just a few of our effective and engaging
breastfeeding education materials and models that are perfect for lactation educators to use with their patients and clients.
Breastmilk’s Composition is Perfected by Nature
Today, more people are realizing the importance of making unprocessed and minimally processed foods the focus of their diet. Unlike infant formula, human breastmilk is a completely unprocessed food created by nature for the growth and development of babies. Breastmilk contains just the right amounts of important nutrients, which are easily digested, absorbed, and used by a baby’s body for optimal growth and development.
For the first 6 months of life, it is recommended that a baby be exclusively breastfed, receiving only breastmilk along with vitamin D supplementation. Parents of babies who are breastfed should also follow the instructions of their baby’s healthcare professional about iron supplementation.
Breastfeeding Is the Eco-Friendly Choice
When a mother breastfeeds her baby, not only is she providing her infant with the best possible nutrition, she also is helping to take care of the earth for generations to come.
With breastmilk going straight from mother to baby, it requires no packaging, leaving no waste in landfills. Breastfeeding cuts down on the use of fuel to transport formula to stores, and it uses fewer cleaning resources to clean formula bottles. Plus, breastfeeding also decreases the environmental impact of dairy farming.
Breastfeeding May Help Prevent Childhood Obesity
Compared with formula feeding, breastfeeding is linked with a decreased risk of childhood obesity. Breastfed babies are better able to control the amount of breastmilk they consume, helping them respond to internal cues for hunger and fullness. Studies suggest that children who were breastfed have superior concentrations in their blood of leptin, a hormone thought to control hunger as well as levels of body fat.
Breastfed babies also may be more likely to try and accept new foods. Breastmilk includes flavors from the foods the mother eats, so a mother who eats a wide variety of healthy foods can influence her child’s tastes. Unlike breastmilk, the taste of formula never varies, which means a formula-fed infant does not get exposed to the variety of tastes that a breastfed baby experiences.
Breastfeeding Helps Protect Against SIDS
Babies who are breastfed or who are fed breastmilk are at a reduced risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the sudden, unexpected death of a baby under the age of 1 when no other cause can be determined. The antibodies in breastmilk can help build a baby’s immune system, helping fight against infection that may be a contributing factor in some SIDS deaths. Compared with formula-fed infants, breastfed babies are more easily roused during sleep at 2 to 3 months of age, when many SIDS deaths occur. Breastfeeding mothers who share a room with their babies may also have greater awareness of their babies sleeping and waking habits. As covered in our
Reducing the Risk of SIDS Tear Pad and
Loving Baby Care™: Sleep Safety Tear Pad, the safest place for babies to sleep is in a safety-approved crib or bassinet near the parents’ bed, not in their bed.
Extended Breastfeeding Offers Additional Benefits
Breastmilk is the only food and drink a baby needs for the first 6 months of life. After 6 months of age, a baby can start receiving complementary foods in addition to breastmilk. It is recommended that a mother breastfeed until her baby is at least 12 months old.
How long a mother continues to breastfeed is an individual choice to be weighed based upon personal factors, but a mother can continue to breastfeed as long as she and her baby wish. Both babies and their mothers can benefit from breastfeeding beyond the first year. For infants and toddlers, breastmilk naturally changes to meet their nutritional needs as they age. Breastmilk also continues to provide antibodies to help children fight infections. For mothers, extended breastfeeding (breastfeeding beyond 12 months) helps lower the risk of certain diseases and illnesses, such as breast cancer and heart disease.
Discover Our Breastfeeding Education Materials
At Childbirth Graphics, we specialize in creating unique
breastfeeding education resources that explain why breastfeeding is best for babies and their mothers and how to achieve breastfeeding success. Find the materials and models featured here and many more engaging, effective lactation teaching resources in our product section dedicated to
breastfeeding education materials.
The information contained in this newsletter article is not intended to replace the advice of a healthcare professional.
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