Breastmilk is not only an excellent food, it is also preventive medicine! Here is how it works:
Breastmilk contains some general immune factors that boost an infant's immune system. Infants have immature immune systems that are not as effective as an adult's. Breastmilk helps babies fight infectious diseases.
This boost from breastmilk to a baby's maturing immune system might be partly responsible for the observed protection from asthma and allergies that breastfeeding provides.
An exclusively breastfed baby is less likely to develop allergies. A significant source of allergy is exposure to specific proteins found in many foods, including cow's milk (the main ingredient of most infant formulas) and soy beans (the main ingredient of almost all non-dairy infant formulas). An exclusively breastfed baby is not exposed to these for about six months, by which time the immune system is somewhat more mature (thanks to breastmilk in part), and less likely to develop allergies as a result of ingesting those proteins.
Breastmilk also have specific immune factors that fight the germs that the baby is exposed to now. How does this work?
The mother and the baby share the same environment. Thus, whatever germs the baby is exposed to, the mother is exposed to as well.
Germs that the baby but not the mother has been exposed to (for example from daycare) are no problem: breastfeeding is such an intimate relationship that the mother will be sure to get the germs from the baby.
The mother's body produces antibodies that fight those germs as a normal immune function.
These antibodies are transmitted to the baby through breastmilk.
A breastfed baby is much less likely to suffer from gastric infections, partly because of the extra immune protection from breastmilk, and partly because she or he is much less likely to be exposed to harmful germs such as salmonella or various coli bacteria. A bottle-fed baby gets these from improperly sterilized bottles or contaminated water.
Breastmilk contains bifidus factors (one of the beneficial cultures in yogurt). Those have two benefits for the baby. First, the aid in digestion. Second, they prevent coli bacteria from establishing themselves in the intestines. Coli bacteria are responsible for many kinds of gastric distress; they also cause the unpleasant fecal stench. An exclusively breastfed baby's bowel movements are sweet-smelling (thanks to the bifidus), while a bottle- (or mixed-) fed baby's have the characteristic foul odor of feces (because of the harmful coli strains). For many people, just the fact that diaper-changing time is so pleasant with a breastfed baby is enough reason to refrain from bottle-feeding.
If you are not impressed by stories but want facts, here are some (I'll fill in actual numbers when I find them--the numbers I've listed are not reliable; they are just from memory):
A breastfed baby is:
much less likely to have ear infections than a bottle-fed one (1/3 to 1/8?)
much less likely to suffer from respiratory infections than a bottle-fed one (1/2 to 1/10?)
much less likely to suffer from gastroenteritis (1/3 to 1/50)
much less likely to suffer from childhood asthma
much less likely to suffer from food allergies in later life
much less likely to develop cancer as a child or as an adult
much more likely to successfully receive a kidney transplant
possibly less likely to be obese
possibly less likely to suffer from hypertension and heart disease as an adult
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Breastfeeding: Health Benefits for the Baby Wednesday, 21 January 2009 Breastfeeding - Health Benefits for the Baby Breastmilk is not only an excellent food, it is also preventive medicine! Here is how it works: ...
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