12 Reasons to Breast feed, And Why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends it.

1. Breast Milk provides all the nutrition your baby needs.  Breastmilk composition changes from week to week, from day to day, from hour to hour, and during a feeding. It is always the perfect food for your child.  This changing nature of human milk makes it impossible to replicate with any artificial formula.

2. Nursing is convenient and economical. It can be a savings of up to $2000 in the first year. Breastmilk is free, always available, and always at the right temperature.

3. Breastfeeding strengthens the bond between mother and child. When a woman breastfeeds, hormones are produced in her body that help her relax and bond with her baby.

4. Human babies are expecting human milk.  Breastfed Babies are healthier, reducing healthcare costs to family.  Breastmilk contains immunities that are passed to your child. Breastfed children get sick less often. Breastfeeding protects against ear infections, respiratory infections, asthma, meningitis, diarrhea, Crohn's disease, ulcerative entercolitis, childhood lymphomas, and diabetes just to name a few!

5. Breastfeeding raises children's IQs.  Improves brain and nervous system development.

6. Breastfed babies have better tooth and mouth development.

7. Breastfeeding reduces your chance of getting breast cancer and your daughter's chance of getting it as an adult.

8. Breastfeeding is great for the environment.  The production and consumption on formula uses a great deal of resources and produces a huge amount of waste.  For every 3 million bottle-fed babies, 450 million tins of formula are consumed. The resulting 70,000 tons of metal in the form of discarded tins is not recycled. The 550 million tins of artificial baby milk sold each year to bottle feed US babies alone stacked end to end would circle the earth one and a half times;15 550 million tins equals 86,000 tons of tin and 1,230 tons of paper labels.  (www.breastfeeding.com).


9. Breastfeeding lowers the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

10. Breastmilk tastes great. Have you tasted formula? It's awful. Try drinking an 8 ounce glass of it before you give it to your baby. Plus, your baby will have less allergies and a healthier digestive tract.

11. That's what breasts are for. Unfortunately, many societies have sexualized the breast to the point where mothers don't feel comfortable breastfeeding. Trust your body. We have breasts for a very important reason - to feed our young.

12. Breastfeeding tones the muscles of the uterus and helps a woman’s body recover from childbirth and recondition itself more rapidly.