Keeping Your Breast Milk Healthy

Expecting a baby? You must be in a state of bliss, yet confounded by
multiple choices. One of the toughest decisions you will have to make:
Bottle feeding or Breastfeeding? Despite all the information available
on the pros and cons, the final decision is yours. What is right for
someone else might not be right for you.

Here is some help to make your decision.

The strong case for breast feeding

Most pediatricians advocate breast milk as the perfect food for a baby
and indeed it is all that she needs for the first six months. It is
easy to digest. It contains unique disease fighting antibodies, an
exclusive blend of nutrients, hormones and enzymes that promote growth
and development.

Breast milk stays at the right temperature, is available at all times
and is safe and sterile too. Breastfeeding offers protection against
several allergies and diseases. There is more physical contact with
your baby while you breastfeed.

Breastfeeding is beneficial for the mother as well. It helps shrink
your uterus to its normal size, burns calories and helps you lose
weight, and is known to reduce your risk of breast, uterus and ovarian
cancer. Exclusive breastfeeding until six months is an effective
method of contraception too.

And yes, breast milk is nature's first choice for your baby.

Breast feeding: The flip side

Breastfeeding requires a great deal of patience and perseverance not
to mention a great deal of time. If you want to go back to work,
breastfeeding might not be practical.

A breastfeeding mother has to avoid alcohol, smoking and limit
caffeine

http://www.dontplayplay.com/html/Bot...002/46987.html

On Feb 14, 7:58*pm, wrote:
Breast feeding: The flip side
Breastfeeding requires a great deal of patience and perseverance

Not so... breastfeeding MAY required a great deal of patience and
perseverance, but not always. Some mothers and babies have absolutely
no issues and live in happy harmony right from the start (two of my
three children were like this). And the patience and perseverance only
needs to hold up until breastfeeding is well established, at that
point it doesn't require any more patience than bottle feeding does!

not to mention a great deal of time.

Really? It is a lot faster than having to heat or cool bottles of
formula, preparing formula, washing bottles and nipples, sterilizing
said bottles and nipples, etc. With breastfeeding all the work is
done... no need to sterilize anything, no need to heat or cool
anything, just put the baby to the breast and a way you go - this is
especially convenient for those night time feedings.

If you want to go back to work,
breastfeeding might not be practical.

If a person can always express breast milk and store it for later use
making working while breastfeeding fairly easy - freshly expressed
breast milk can be left at room temperature for 10 hours and is still
good to go. Also, babies can be introduced to cow's milk at around 9
months, so depending on when a mother goes back to work she could
start to introduce cow's milk and then wean the baby off the breast
while avoiding formula altogether. Or another option could be to
provide a couple of sippy cups or bottles of cow's milk during the
work day and then breastfeed once home. There are lots of ways it
could work.

A breastfeeding mother has to avoid alcohol, smoking and limit
caffeine

A breastfeeding mother doesn't have to avoid smoking, though it is
recommended. But then it is recommended that everyone avoid smoking so
that really isn't a legit argument! Plus it could be a great incentive
to quit the habit and improve the health of the mother and everyone
else in the household. And yes limit caffeine, but then a pregnant
woman should be limiting caffeine anyway, so again not a great
argument.

-Jen