BREASTFEEDING

Breastmilk is the best milk that you can feed your child, and why give your precious newborn anything but the best? Breastmilk provides superior nutrition, immunological protection, and an opportunity for mother and infant to bond. Formula feeding can't come close to the benefits it provides. Breast-feeding is especially important if mom plans in returning to work. A baby that is breast-fed will get sick less often and be sick for fewer days than its formula-fed counterpart. This means mom (or dad will have to miss less days from work. The closeness of nursing also creates a strong mother-child bond that will help both of them cope with the necessary separation after maternity leave is over. What makes breastmilk such a perfect food? Let's take a look at what compounds and factors are in breastmilk.

In the first few days after birth, the breast secretes a transparent, yellow fluid called colostrum. Colostrum may help the colonization of the gut with the beneficial bifidus bacteria. It may also help in the passage of merconium, a gummy, dark green material in the newborn intestine. Mercomium contains an essential growth factor for the friendly, helpful bacteria, Lactobacillus bifidus, and it is the first culture media in the sterile intestine of the newborn. Colostrum also contains a large amount of antibodies that may protect against gastrointestinal infections.

By the third to sixth day, colostrum changes to transitional milk and by the tenth day, the breast is making mature milk. Mature milk contains a number of antibacterial and antiviral factors including live lymphocytes and macrophages. These cells "eat" harful bacteria and secrete antibodies that destroy harful bacteria and viruses. Hormones and hormone-like substances are also present including throid gland hormones, adrenal gland hormones, and pancreatic hormones. The intestine of the newborn is permeable to large molecules that may cause allergies. Breast milk contains an antibody that promotes closure of the gut. Since cows milk itself causes allergy in some infants, breastfeeding is the best way to prevent food allergies.

The protein composition of breastmilk is different than cow's milk. Breastmilk is rich in taurine. This amino acid is not made well by the body and the requirement for taurine in the developing infant is not yet well understood. Cow's milk contains little taurine. Breast milk is high in cystine and low in methionine. In the normal adult, methionine is converted into cystine, which is needed for growth and development. But the enzyme needed for this conversion is late in development in the fetus and mehtionine may increase in the bloodstream of an infant fed cow's milk but not in an infant fed human milk. High levels of methionine may damage the nervous system. Breast milk is lower in phenylalanine and tyrosine. The enzymes needed for the use of these two amino acids are also late in developing, which may cause a build-up in the blood of cow's milk fed-infants. Excessive levels of these amino acids may affect the development of the central nervous system, particularly in the premature baby. Breast milk will reduce the problem.

Breast milk is also very high in cholesterol, much higher than cow's milk or commercially prepared formulas. Cholesterol is needed to make the myelin sheath that surronds nerve cells and for the stimulation of enzymes necessary in later life for cholesterol breakdown.

Advantages to Breast-Feeding:

• Human milk is always fresh and there is less chance for contamination.
• Human milk contains a variety of anti-infectious factors and immune cells.
• Infant's jaw develops more fully and teeth are less crowded.
• Reduced chance of deveoping allergies.
• Reduced incidence of colic.
• Less chance of infant being overfed.
• Mother's uterus shrinks to normal size more quickly.
• Promotes infant-mother bonding.
• Human milk provides all the nutrients, known and unknown, and the human infant needs to develop normally.
• Breastmilk is nutritious and convenient.