The benefits for eksklusif breast feeding.

Exclusive breastfeeding is when a baby receives only breast milk, without any additional food or drinks (including water) until 6 months of age.While breastfeeding beyond 6 months, baby should receive foods with continued breast milk until the age of 2 or older. The breastfeeding duration after 2 years depends entirely on mom and baby. Breastfeeding provides many benefits for both you and your baby. But the best part is, your breastmilk gives your baby everything she needs to thrive for the first six months of life.  You can carry on breastfeeding your baby even after she starts solids at around six months. The nutrients from your breastmilk will continue to do good for her.Here's how breastfeeding benefits your baby:

The composition of breast milk is ideally suited to your baby’s intestines and so is easily digestible. Your breastmilk contains antibodies which help protect your baby against illnesses such

as gastroenteritis, colds, urinary infections (UTIs), and ear infections. It may also help to reduce the risk of SIDS. Breastmilk reduces the risk of your baby getting allergic reactions such as asthma and eczema. Nursing your baby can even help to protect her against serious illnesses, such as childhood diabetes and

leukemia (blood cancer). Breastmilk has fatty acids which are vital for helping your baby's brain develop. Exclusively breastfeeding for the

first few months can improve your baby's cognitive development. In theory, this means breastfeeding your baby could make her more intelligent.

Your body also makes new antibodies when you're exposed to an infection. The antibodies get into your milk, ready for your baby to have. These help to protect your baby from your illness.

Breastmilk has been found to be important for premature babies and low birth weight babies. That's because they may be more susceptible to infections early in life.

The insulin in breastmilk is far less than in formula milk. Insulin helps create fat so breastmilk might make it easier for your baby to put on weight.

Also breastfed babies are more efficient at regulating their feedings, leading to healthier eating patterns as they grow.

Breastfeeding is a great way to help your baby maintain her body temperature. Besides keeping her warm, skin-to-skin contact helps you bond with to each other.

Experts find that breastfeeding your baby during or just after immunisation can help to soothe her.

The Importance of Exclusive Breastfeeding11 September 2013

Article

Photo courtesy of MamaYe!

By Lanre Olagunju

For infants to survive, grow and develop properly they require the right proportion of nutrients; the nutrients can only be found in the breast milk of the mother. The breast milk is rich in nutrients and antibodies and they are always readily available with the right quantities of fat, sugar, water and protein. These nutrients are the major pre-requisite to the health and survival of the baby. Moreover they are available in the form that can be easily digested by the babies in comparison to formula made from cow’s milk which takes time to get digested.

The breast milk has been naturally designed such that the antibodies in it protect the baby from illness. It also serves as a means to boost the child’s immune system in such an irreplaceable way. When a child is exclusively breast fed, he becomes immune to life threatening illness like pneumonia and diarrhoea amongst other infections. Fact findings from studies show that infants that are not breast fed for the first six months of life are 15 times more likely to die from Pneumonia and 11 times more likely to die if they become infected by diarrhoea, as compared to newborns who are breast fed exclusively for six months after birth.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends colostrums, the yellowish sticky breast milk that is produced at the end of pregnancy, as the ideal food for newborns. The WHO’s governing body recommends that colostrums –the first breast milk produced after delivery - be given to newborns within the first hour of birth, a process referred to as early initiation. A research report has it that infants breast fed within the first hour of birth are three times more likely to survive than those who have their first breast milk after a day.

The beauty of breast-feeding lies in its consistency and ensuring that it’s exclusively given to the child for up to 6 months. Breast-feeding exclusively implies that from birth, the child only receives breast milk without water, food or drink. The only exceptions are rehydration salts and then syrups which should contain medicine. It has been also recommended that breastfeeding should be continued after being fed exclusively for six months; with appropriate complementary food till the child celebrates his/her second birthday.  

Evidently it’s clear that the importance of breastfeeding to infants is not a negotiable thing. Most especially when we consider the fact that it helps improve their health and their survival chances. If only more mothers would adhere and decide to breast feed their child exclusively for six months, globally we would through this singular act save more lives and ensure that more infants live up to maturity.

This to a great extent shows the correlation between breastfeeding and the reduction of child and newborn mortality. Yes, it may be demanding for the mother at the onset, but when mother and child become acquainted to the routine, it becomes enjoyable. Apart from its numerous advantages to the baby, breastfeeding improves the bond between mother and child. In addition to that, it has also been revealed that breastfeeding has a way of reducing a mother’s chances of suffering Type 2 diabetes and breast and ovarian cancer, amongst other ailments. What is more, it is always readily available and cheap, thus saving the cost of feeding as well as helping to save health care costs by guaranteeing the child’s health and safety. (Recent studies say that an economy like the US will save $13billion if 90% of mothers breastfeed).

We also need to consider that mothers can quench their baby’s hunger instantly without going through the stress of preparing formula and also ensuring that the feeding bottle are well sterilized and free from germs. You won’t even have to see the baby cry while you wait to

allow the warmly prepared formula to cool off. It has also been noticed that children who are breastfed do better in intelligence tests than those who are not.

With so many benefits and the fact that exclusive breastfeeding is a contributing factor to reducing child and newborn mortality, everyone has a role to play in ensuring that more mothers breast feed exclusively.

It is essential that we counsel, encourage and support mothers to initiate breastfeeding and then breast feed exclusively. Fathers also have a major role to play in this. Governments also need to be strong on regulation and policies regarding the marketing of breast milk substitutes so that it can be discouraged.