What so great about breastmilk? Although your baby will still grow and mature and perhaps even go to a prestigious college if he’s fed baby formula, there’s a big reason why doctors call breastmilk “white blood”.
Breastmilk isn’t just food. In fact, it’s actually closer to unstructured and living tissue (like blood) than it is to food. Breastmilk is chalk full of vitamins, white blood cells, antibodies, water, hormones, protein and other growth factors. It’s also abundant in certain ingredients that kill bacteria and viruses. In summary, breastmilk does exactly what the placenta did when your baby was in your womb. It offers the most perfect balance of everything needed for a baby to fully develop (physically and neurologically).
A baby’s brain is only a quarter complete at the time of birth. The other three quarters of the brain will grow well into their teenage years. But the most crucial brain development time happens in the first few years of the baby’s life. A lot of this growth is due to the different types of stimulation the baby gets from the mother: emotional, physical and neurological. But it also largely depends on what the baby eats.
The British Medical Journal Lancet punblished a conclusive study about 8-year-olds who were breastfed during their first month of life vs 8-year-olds who were fed formula. The breastfed children scored 8.3 points higher on IQ tests than their formula-fed counterparts. But that’s not all. Other studies not only confirm this, but also say that this number keeps going up the longer the child is breastfed. One study goes so far as to say that an additional 3 points (of IQ) should be added each additional month that the baby is breastfed (after the 6 month mark), all the way upto a year!
Scientists have identified over 300 components in breastmilk, and that is but a fraction of what is actually available in this “White blood”. They believe that breastmilk in its entirety strongly influences a baby’s brain, growth, and even behavior. It also strengthens and protects the child’s immune system, lessening and preventing some illnesses.
Scientists don’t call formula that: formula. They refer to it as ABM, or artificial baby milk. And that’s what it is. A manufactured, artificial, unnatural substance. In no way can it compare to the food your own body makes. Your body, the very same one that helped create and nurture a fetus and then birth an infant.
Ever since formula was invented it has been recognized that formula-fed babies are hospitalized ten times as often as breastfed babies. They also have twice as many visits to the doctor. They have more gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections.
On the other hand, breastfed babies can be protected from even genetic diseases. If your baby is a likely candidate for allergies, diabetes or asthma due to genes, breastmilk has actually been shown to either fully block the onslaught of such illnesses or at least minimize the effects.
But what about the mother? Are there any health advantages to consider?
Women who don’t breastfeed are more likely to suffer form osteoporosis, ovarian cancer and premenopausal breast cancer. However, women who breastfeed for even a measly three months significantly cut their risks for those terrible diseases. Studies also show that new breastfeeding mothers produce less stress-related hormones.
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