Breastfeeding and Your Child's Physical Development
One major and more popular importance of breastfeeding is its effects on your child’s physical development. There are numerous health benefits a breastfed child will enjoy over one who was not breastfed. An immediate benefit is that you child is getting the right amount of nutrition in the exact amounts they need. This is something designed by nature and cannot be mimicked by formula milk.
Breast milk contains lactose which aids in the calcium absorption of your child, important for their growing bones while also containing Lactoferrin which works in binding iron and making your child immune to bacteria in the intestines.
It contains essential and important vitamins such as Vitamins A, B-complex, C, D, E, and K, as well as whey protein and important minerals such as phosphorous, calcium, and zinc. Apart from that, it contains essential fats and bile salt stimulated lipase which aids in the digestion of the essential fats.
There are many more components to breast milk, but just those few alone show you how it’s tailored to suit your child at their young age. Another immediate effect of breast milk is that it protects your child’s intestines by providing pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor, or PSTI. It’s found highest in colostrum, but can be found in varying amounts in breast milk as well. It protects your baby’s intestines by giving it the ability to repair any damage the baby’s intestines may incur. This is especially important for a new born baby who has never tried any form of food or drink, and even more important in the future when your baby begins eating solids.
Less immediate effects of breastfeeding include preventing your child from acquiring any food allergies or other allergies in general. If asthma runs in your family, for example, breastfeeding your child is one way to protect their immune system and lessening their chances of getting asthma.
Breast milk helps your child fight off infections that occur in childhood like ear infections, diarrhea, respiratory infections, meningitis, and other childhood illnesses. In fact breastfed babies are less likely to develop chronic childhood illnesses.
As a benefit to mothers, breastfeeding your child will help you lose some of the baby weight you gained. It’s a very effective method of burning calories, and it also helps in the process of shrinking the uterus, which is needed after childbirth. Studies have also shown that mothers who breastfeed are less likely to have premenopausal breast cancer, and are at a decreased risk for ovarian and uterine cancer.
Next Article: The Prolonged Health Benefit of Breastfeeding
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