subject: Duration For Breast Feeding - What Is Expected? [print this page] Breast feeding is the direct feeding of an infant from the mothers breast. It provides a child with all its nutritional requirements right from birth to when its at least six months. Breast milk provides a balanced meal for a child. In addition, it also contains antibodies which are useful for the child when fighting infections and childhood illnesses. You can also express breast milk into a feeding bottle which is used to feed the child when you are away. It is advisable to delay this for a few weeks so as not to confuse the baby. Breast feeding also provides an excellent opportunity for the mother to bond with the child.
Some doctors advice that, a mother should exclusively breast feed her child for at least six months after birth. Others will say that one year is the best duration even if during that time, you introduce other baby foods, formula and water. However, it is only a mother who can decide what will work best for them. Different mothers will use different duration depending on their schedules. For stay at home mothers, six months or one year will be possible. For most working mothers this might prove difficult. Most companies will only allow a mother three months for maternity leave. After this, a mother can then choose to express her milk or start her child on formula milk.
Baby formula is quite costly and some mothers will try to postpone this due to cost factor. During breast feeding, it is not possible to know whether the child has had enough since, you cannot measure how much they have suckled. This is one of the reasons why mothers will introduce baby formula after six months so as to ensure that their child is getting enough nutrition. Mothers may also have to cut short the duration of suckling their children if they have serious medical conditions such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS or heart problems. In addition, mothers who are on medication may also have to stop suckling their children. This is because, some of the drugs can pass on to the child through breast milk.
Whatever duration one chooses for breast feeding, they need to take into consideration the benefits to the child and to the mother. A breast feed baby has higher intelligence and cognitive skills than one who was fed on baby formula. They are also less prone to childhood diseases such as diarrhea which can be fatal. A mother who suckles her child is less likely to suffer from excessive postpartum bleeding, has less risk of developing cancer and produces hormones which help the uterus to contract faster.
Duration For Breast Feeding - What Is Expected?
By: Peter Gitundu
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
