Is Breast Milk the Hands Down Winner in the Whole Baby Feeding Debate?

If you are expecting a baby soon, you're probably wondering about the whole debate to do with feeding a baby formula as opposed to choosing to get a child breast-fed. Just think - the American Academy of Pediatrics goes so far as to recommend that your baby see no other food for the first six months other than breast milk. Does this mean that a mother who doesn't breast-feed is somehow not doing the best for her baby? What you decide to do depends in the end on what you're most comfortable with. The baby's emotional and nutritional needs usually, are well-met no matter what method of baby feeding a mother chooses.

As far as breast-feeding is concerned, mother's milk is so far an inimitable choice. As close to the original composition as the formula makers have come, the products you get at the stores are never as good as what nature can make. Breast milk contains the exact kind of vitamins, protein, fat and minerals that your newborn baby needs. No other kind of milk is an easily digested by your baby's developing digestive system. Not to mention, a baby feeding on breast milk gets doses of antibodies against all kinds of diseases. A baby that is fed on breast milk is less likely to come down with allergies, cholesterol problems, diabetes and asthma and is less likely to end up overweight later in life.

Does this sound like having a baby feeding on breast milk is great for the baby but not for the mother? Not really. To begin with, breast-feeding helps a new mother lose calories that would otherwise get deposited around the waist. The kind of volume of exercise a new mother would have to undertake to do to lose those pounds  would be pretty high. Breast-feeding also helps them get into shape quickly by helping the uterus get back to its normal size far more quickly. And of course, researchers say that there is some evidence that breast-feeding helps the new mother keep breast and ovarian cancer away.

So far so good; is there anything at all that recommends formula over breast milk? Well, a baby feeding on formula needs to be fed far less often. A baby's digestive system doesn't digest formula as quickly as it does breast milk. A mother can keep a close watch on how much exactly her baby is getting when it's formula too. Not to mention, for a working mother, bottlefeeding can be so much less demanding. This gives a mother more time to sleep through the night. And that is an advantage that is not to be taken lightly.