Major Reasons Why You Should Breast Feed Your Baby

Breast feeding is nowadays considered by many women as old school practice because technology has allowed availing nutritional requirements to the baby. Technology has helped a lot because babies who are abandoned by their mothers due to death or otherwise are able to live and have the basic nutrients for the growth and development. Because of this, women who can afford these formula foods do not see the reasons why to breast feed their babies so that they can maintain good shape of the breast and at the same time raise up children who are healthy, but at a disadvantage.

Traditionally, breast feeding should last for at least two years with variation of about six months. Children who are breast fed for a longer period of time tend to have good health as opposed to those who have not undergone any breast feeding. Personally, I have a brother who was breast fed for only one week. My mother had to stop breast feeding him because she was so sick at that time and later own she discovered that she was suffering from HIV related infections.

As a result of lack of basic acquired immunity that comes from breast feeding, my brother had a retarded development for many years. He took so long to learn the art of walking and talking. His age mates could run to and fro from place to place yet he did not even scroll. He could develop rushes on the body, have frequent ailments such as diarrhea, headache and skin related complications.

It reached a point when we thought that the brother was infected with HIV too and we had to take him to the health care center in order to know about his HIV status. The tests that were performed on him revealed that he was not HIV positive but that he lacked a lot in his immune system.

Though my brother had been fed on formula baby foods, he still lacked a lot on immunity that he could have acquired in the breast milk. Breast milk contain a lot of antibodies (Immunoglobulin) and similar proteins, enzymes and other immune related compounds that are past from mother to the child. There is no any formula food that can contain these essential immunity agents that have prepared that can relate or come close to that in the mother's breast milk.
The breast milk also contains an important sugar known as lactose which is very important component during the development of the brain. Along side other fatty acids such as the omega oils, the lactose is fully involved in the child's capacity of proper brain development thereby a child who is denied the right proportion of this sugar will have a low mental capacity and therefore will have a low IQ as compared to those children who have been properly breast fed.

Apart from the advantages of breast feeding as seen in the child, women who do not breast feed have been found to be many times more likely to develop breast cancer as opposed to the women who breast feed.

The only associated disadvantage that has been found in breast feeding is the surging of the breasts. Women (because of the men's preferences), will prefer to have a body that will attract men rather than have their breasts free of cancer. A wise decision is to breast your child not only for your own good but also for the proper development of your baby.