Breast Feeding Why is breast milk best

Breast feeding can save families as much as $100 per month in formula costs. Breast feeding can save families even more money by reducing medical costs for healthier mothers and healthier babies. Experts also agree that breast feeding holds many other benefits for both the mother and infant.

It's true. Bottled milk does offer some advantages, such as extra sleep and more freedom to go out. However, the psychological benefits of breastfeeding far outweigh the psychological benefits of bottle feeding.

In addition to being more expensive, formula needs to be stored at the proper temperature, heated, measured and mixed. Many moms consider the preparation and storage advantages of breast milk reason alone to breast feed their infants.

As for the extra sleep, breast feeding moms quickly learn to sleep when the baby sleeps and then rouse themselves only lightly during the night.

A summary of some benefits of breast feeding for infants are:

• Fewer ear and respiratory infections. 
• Potentially fewer allergies. 
• Reduced incidences of cancer.
• Protection against SIDS--sudden infant death syndrome.
• Disease preventing immunities are passed from mother to child.
• Reduced incidence of blood infections and meningitis.
• Lower mortality rate for infants. 
• Assures contact with mother. 
• Fewer incidents of serious diarrhoea. 
• Reduced incidences of insulin-dependent diabetes. 
• Acts as first brain food as it helps to set down the proper matrix for humans. 

Weaning your breast fed baby

When you decide to stop breastfeeding, you will need to wean your baby from the breast. This may be at various stages of the infant’s development and may lead to either bottles of expressed breast milk, formula or cow’s milk. Regardless of what stage of your infant’s development you decide to wean your child, these tips will help the process go more smoothly.

• Gradually decrease the time of the nursing sessions.
• Make use of distraction, involving your infant in an activity that distracts him or her from the fact that you have decreased the time nursing at the breast.
• Change the usual routine by ending the nursing session in a different way. Offer a new physical activity to replace the sucking and cuddling associated with breastfeeding.
• Make sure your child is getting enough cuddling and affection in physical ways not associated with breastfeeding, such as sitting on your lap while you read to him or her, or rocking and cuddling before nap time.
• Eliminate the inconvenient nursing sessions first, allowing others to continue unchanged. For example, change to a bottle for the night feeding, or cut the night nursing session all together.
• Keep your breasts covered when you aren’t nursing. Sometimes simply seeing the breast can cause an infant to want to nurse again.

• If your child is old enough to understand, talk about weaning by emphasizing what a big boy or girl your child is and all the things he or she can do independent of mommy, like dressing, going potty, and feedings.
• The most important thing to remember is to be patient, and be willing to nurse your child when he or she really needs it. Weaning can be traumatic if it isn’t done over time and at a slow pace that accommodates your child’s needs as well as your own.