what are the benefits to breastfeeding

Benefits of Breastfeeding

Breast milk is not just nutrition for the baby, it is a strong emotional and biological basis for its development. What is so beneficial for breastfeeding for a baby? 

Breast milk is not only useful, it is also very convenient: you do not need to buy a mixture, sterilize bottles and worry about how to feed your baby on the go, always warm and tasty milk with you.

Milk has all the necessary vitamins, minerals and trace elements that the child needs for health and development. In the first six months of life, breast milk is simply necessary for the child, as it contains fatty acids, which help the maturation and development of the baby’s nervous system. It is also necessary for the development and strengthening of immunity, which is underdeveloped up to 4 months and it is the components of breast milk that help fight infections and pathogens. It has been proven that breast milk proteins even contribute to the destruction of cancer cells.

Contrary to popular belief that breast milk becomes useless for a child after a year, this is completely not the case.

  • fat content of breast milk after a year increases by 2-3 times;
  • with the age of the child, the amount of antibodies increases;
  • as the child grows older, the content of immunoglobulin A increases.  

448 ml of breast milk for a child of the second year of life provide:

  • 43% protein requirement
  • 36% calcium requirement
  • 75% need for vitamin A;
  • 94% need for vitamin B12;
  • 60% of vitamin C needs.

Breast milk is perfectly absorbed and is suitable for the digestion of the baby. While breastfeeding, the child eats more often, but eats less food at a time, and milk passes through the digestive system 2 times faster than the artificial mixture. This ensures regular and smooth bowel function.

Breast milk contains sugar and fats, which are the main building material for the nervous system, they make the baby’s body stronger and more durable. In the first few months, the brain of a newborn develops extremely rapidly, there are studies that prove that children who are breast-fed have a higher level of intelligence.

Colic in breast-fed babies occurs with the same frequency as babies breast-fed, but they pass faster and cause less discomfort to the baby. This is because for their digestive system there is no additional load required to digest the mixture.

During breastfeeding, the baby calms down, feels safe, near the mother it is warm and comfortable, this forms the basic trust in the baby in mother and in the world.

Breast milk is balanced, tailored to the individual needs of a particular child and is aimed at the development of the whole organism and the brain in particular. An artificial mixture contains components that are primarily aimed at increasing body weight, but, unfortunately, they do not carry such benefits for the child’s body as milk.

During sucking, many facial muscles are involved in the child, so this has a beneficial effect on facial development. The children who were breast-fed have better aligned jaws, a wide nasal space, and in adulthood they suffer less from snoring and shortness of breath in sleep.