What Are The Three Advantages Of Breastfeeding?
The Benefits Of Breastfeeding For Mother & Baby
It’s quite a personal matter whether to breastfeed or not. However, you should know that exclusive breastmilk (no formula, water, juice, other fluid) is the best for your baby especially during the first 6 months of his/ her life.
Why breastmilk is the best for your baby?
First of all, breast milk provides the ideal nutrition for your baby to grow. This means that by providing solely breast milk, your baby gets all the nutrients needed for growth. Do not worry, because the composition of breast milk will change according to the baby’s changing needs! In addition, breastmilk is easier for babies to digest as compared to infant formula.
Secondly, breast milk contains essential antibodies that help babies to fight off viruses and bacteria! Yes, you heard it right, breastfeeding will lower the risk of infections for babies. This particularly applies to colostrum, the first milk produced by mothers. Colostrum provides high amounts of immunoglobulin A (IgA), as well as several other antibodies. When mothers are exposed to viruses or bacteria, your body will start producing antibodies, then these antibodies will then go into the breast milk. Bear in mind that you can only find this in breast milk, but not in any formula milk!
Lastly, by breastfeeding, it will benefit mothers too! It will help mothers to lose weight just by breastfeeding alone because it burns calories while breastfeeding.
Article written by:
Nutritionist Foo Kai Li
Dietitian Christabelle Chong
𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐍𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭 & 𝐃𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧. 𝐀𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.
REFERENCES
Grow by WebMD (n.d). Breastfeeding. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/nursing-basics#1
Parenthood Healthline (2020). 11 Benefits of Breastfeeding for Both Mom and Baby. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/breastfeeding/11-benefits-of-breastfeeding