The Prolonged Health Benefit of Breastfeeding
In addition to all the immediate and near future benefits your child will have from breastfeeding, there are several long term health benefits that they will also enjoy. The first and most popular one being promoted lately is that breastfed children are less susceptible to childhood obesity. Because they are able to control their hunger and the amounts that they eat, breastfed children are less likely to overeat throughout the rest of their lives. This can be very helpful for many children being raised in a society where obesity is a major problem.
Breastfeeding your child will help them with future medical problems. This is because breastfed babies are less likely to have any form of heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses. In the April 1999 issue of the popular journal, Pediatrics, a study showed that children who were not breastfed as infants incur additional medical costs of $331 to $475 per year on average.
It goes without saying that breastfeeding your child is so important because its effects carry on into adulthood. Other new studies of breast milk and breastfeeding show really promising trends of helping a child build their immune system, as well as reach their maximum potential for growth and development. In one particular study, it showed that breastfed babies are less likely to develop multiple sclerosis and other degenerative diseases in adulthood, and all the way up to late adulthood.
Breast milk is a unique asset of nature, and nothing can replace it. Not only is it the best food for your new baby, but it is priceless (literally and figuratively.) It’s long term physical and mental benefits for your child are unlike any other, and it’s also beneficial for you as a mother. Brain development and physical benefits are not the only effects of breast milk, though. There are also wonderful emotional and psychological benefits both you and your child will enjoy.
Development of Emotional Health
There is no blessing in the world as wonderful as a healthy and happy baby. Believe it or not, breastfeeding can actually promote this. The physical health benefits of breastfeeding are easy to see. The emotional and psychological benefits are less easy to spot in the beginning, but as your child becomes older, you will notice these benefits as well.
The act of breastfeeding is a moment of bonding between mother and child. It is a way in which a mother can still be physically connected to her child and vice versa. The act promotes trust between mother and child, and the child will feel a sense of security and happiness when the mother is around. The development of this attachment between mother and child will be useful during the child’s childhood and teen years.
Some studies have shown that children who were breastfed are generally happier and more likely to be emotionally healthy than children who were not breastfed. Many psychologists attribute this better disposition on mental health to the bond formed between you and your child in the act of breastfeeding. While other factors can lead to a child’s happiness and good disposition, it is believed that breastfeeding is a big factor.
The natural bond formed when breastfeeding will be felt throughout childhood. It helps during the teen years, and sometimes it carries on into adulthood. An adult who continues to be very close to his or her parents even after leaving their home and starting their own life is likely to have been a breastfed child. The psychological security promoted between mother and child through the act of breastfeeding can help a child throughout the rest of their lives, and though its benefits may go unnoticed by most people, statistics do tell us that the benefits are there.
As a mother, try to breastfeed your child for as long as possible, which is usually as long as both you and your child are comfortable in the process. It is understandable, however that as a modern woman you have other responsibilities and obligations, and therefore may have to wean your child early. There are solutions to weaning your child early, but still providing them with breast milk.
In other articles on this site, when the subject of weaning your child from breastfeeding is discussed in detail, the subject of milk pumping and storage will be discussed in case you want to stop physically breastfeeding, but still provide your child with breast milk. This is partial weaning since a completely weaned child no longer drinks breast milk either from the breast or from the bottle.
Before discussing weaning in detail, however, breastfeeding and its problems must be discussed as there are some issues that arise during breastfeeding that can lead to problems during weaning.
Next Article: Breastfeeding: Latching on & Positioning
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