Study: Breast-feeding would save lives, money (if babies were fed only breast-milk first 6 months)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/5/10 | Lindsay Tanner - ap

[NormsRevenge]

A healthy baby is a happy baby.

[Ingtar]

I hope the 10% are the ones who would smoke, drink, or do drugs while nursing a baby.

[al baby]

I think it would be good for adults too

[Paleo Conservative]

There should be a federal tax on baby formula just as there are now federal taxes on medical devices. That’ll fix the problem.

[mt tom]

just think how many babies would be saved if they weren’t killed in the womb before they even have a chance at latching onto a nipple

[Sacajaweau]

How many lives not could but WOULD be saved if we outlawed abortions. Apparently, that doesn’t bother health folks at...in fact, they like the after-pill.

[al baby]

Id be happy to be an inspector

[Sacajaweau]

wow...19 seconds...

[Paleo Conservative]

[Tax-chick]

I understand the statistics involved, but conclusions like “900 lives per year” still seem squirrelly to me.

It’s not easy to breastfeed a baby exclusively to six months. Most of them want some food, especially if they have teeth! I’ve had only one of nine exclusively nursing at 6 months, and he just wasn’t hungry until he was nearly 8 years old and noticed that two younger brother were bigger than he.

I would suggest that instead of pushing exclusive breastfeeding until six months, they should concentrate on promoting extended breastfeeding. Nursing a child from one to two years old is easy, usually - you nurse when he gets up in the morning, before his nap, and before bed. Maybe in the afternoon when you’re all bored and watching the “Hercules” reruns.

[Maelstorm]

My wife breast fed all of ours. We even had an argument about it before we had kids. I said something to the effect that I could never imagine not doing something as natural as breast feeding when it is shown to be so good for the development of children.

[sportutegrl]

My pediatrician told me not to give my babies anything but breast milk for the first six months. No milk or formula mixed with cereal, no baby food, nothing. She said that they can swallow it but they can't digest it, you are just making dirty diapers and upset stomachs. So I did that, but so many mothers had to comment that my baby wasn't eating solids 'yet', and pointing out how their 3 month old was eating baby food now, etc.

What was interesting was that as they neared the 6 month mark they could go 10 days without making a poopy. When I told the doctor, she said that breast milk is the ideal baby food, they can digest it almost completely with no waste. This is how you know that their digestive system is ready for other things.

[NormsRevenge]

Good for you and the kids and your Wifey. I have no babyhood memories of bottles, and there were 8 of us over quite a few years.

[Tax-chick]

But waiting for the “Big One” to hit is rather stressful, especially if you have to go to church!

[NormsRevenge]

The experts offered that they couldn’t provide a ‘real’ number and pulled it out of the air.. but.. part of the magic if you will is the ability of mama bear to pass lots of good nutrients to the cub... so I have a feeling it is not a number to sneeze at.. and vastly understated..

[JustaDumbBlonde]

""The health care system has got to be aware that breast-feeding makes a profound difference," said Dr. Ruth Lawrence, who heads the American Academy of Pediatrics' breast-feeding section."

I've had 3 grandchildren in the past 3 years or so, and I've got to tell you that those Lactation Nurses in the hospitals -- and it was 3 different hospitals in different cities -- are some kind of emphatically nuts. One baby did not want to nurse, nothing wrong with the baby, he just didn't want the breast, and that lactation witch made my DIL feel like a failure as a woman and a mother before she had been a mother for 2 days.

If a mother wants to breast feed and the baby agrees ... fine and dandy. But to push this like they do these days, acting like the world will come to an end if you don't breastfeed the infant, is damaging and wrong. The baby formulas these days are very good and, while not offering the immunities that mothers' milk might, they will grow a youngin' just fine.

[Politicalmom]

My experience was the opposite. I couldn’t get my babies to eat baby food. They nursed exclusively until they moved to finger food at about 10 months.

[Tax-chick]

I’m assuming they’re calculating a certain number of illnesses avoided, and then figuring the death rates from such illnesses. There are deaths from infant ear infections, for example, especially from unexpected antibiotic allergies.

I took the classes and got As, but statistics is just so counterintuitive sometimes. You get your answer and common sense says, “No way, we didn’t have enough data to conclude this!”

[camerongood210]

0 will now start taxing breast milk

[CAluvdubya]

just think how many babies would be saved if they weren’t killed in the womb before they even have a chance at latching onto a nipple

A friend of mine and his wife desperately want a baby. They are beginning to look into fertility doctors and discovered that it's not covered under his health insurance.......but abortion is.

It's a sick, sick world....