Jamie Tanenbaum and son Zachary, 2, at home on Deep Cove Court. Zachary was breastfed and never had a drop of formula.

Jamie Tanenbaum never thought she’d breastfeed her child. She was bottle-fed and no one in her family had breastfed their children.

But then she started to practice a more natural way of living, and she and husband Jason were expecting their first child. Zachary turned 2 in June.

Of course, the expectant mom wanted what was best for her child. “After I realized the advantages, it was a no-brainer,” she says of her choice to breastfeed.

“I hope to provide the best of everything I can,” says Tanenbaum of Deep Cove Court.

The health advantages for the baby, Tanenbaum notes, include reduced risks of cancers, diabetes, digestive troubles and some food sensitivities and allergies. Breastfeeding helps in the baby’s eye development because of the switching in feeding positions, she says; a mother bottle-feeding may develop a habit of holding her baby on one side or the other, not alternating positions.

Health advantages for the mother include helping in prevention of breast cancer, and with spacing of pregnancies.

Tanenbaum, a stay-at-home mom and speech pathologist, also noticed better oral motor skills and jaw development, shorter periods when her son was sick, fewer fevers and fewer visits to the doctor and medical bills.

When making the decision to breastfeed, though, Tanenbaum says the economics never entered her mind. “I hadn’t thought about the savings in formula and doctor’s visits.”

One of the biggest plusses in breastfeeding is the bonding between mother and child, Tanenbaum says. The bonding from skin-to-skin contact helps regulate the baby’s heart rate and breathing.

“You learn to read your baby’s cues and being able to from an early age, you prevent frustration,” she says.

Want to learn more?

La Leche League of Lake Norman meets 10 a.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, St. Alban’s Lane, Davidson.
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Breastfeeding touted for health benefits, cost savings

It is generally acknowledged within the medical community that breast milk is the ideal first food for babies, though modern formula brands can get the job done, too.

Human breast milk naturally contains the vitamins and minerals a newborn requires. According to the website KidsHealth.org, breastfed infants have less difficulty with digestion than their formula-fed counterparts. And since breast milk is easily digested, breastfed babies have fewer incidences of diarrhea or constipation.

Also, researchers have found that infants fed with human breast milk have lower rates of hospital admissions, ear infections, diarrhea, rashes and allergies than bottle-fed babies.

Meanwhile, a raft of studies suggest that infants who are fed breast milk may have lower incidences of asthma, diabetes, obesity and other health problems later on in life.

“Human milk is made for human infants, and it meets all their specific nutrient needs,” says Ruth Lawrence, M.D., spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics and professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York.

“We’ve known for years that the death rates in Third World countries are lower among breast-fed babies,” she adds. “Breast-fed babies are healthier and have fewer infections than formula-fed babies.”

Another related upside to breast milk is cost savings — both for families and the larger health care system. Mothers who can’t or choose not to breast feed end up spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars per year on formula, and higher incidences of illness and disease down the road means higher costs for all.

One concern with breastfeeding is that toxins present in mom’s bloodstream can make their way into baby. But a 2007 study by Ohio State and Johns Hopkins University researchers found that levels of chemicals in breast milk were far below U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum acceptable levels for even drinking water, and that indoor air in typical American homes contains as much as 135 times as many contaminants as mother’s milk.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control maintains that the benefits of breastfeeding far outweigh any chemical exposure risks. “To date, effects on the nursing infant have been seen only where the mother herself was clinically ill from a toxic exposure,” reports the agency.

Of course, not all mothers are able to breastfeed, and in such cases formula can be a healthy alternative. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates all baby formulas to ensure purity and that they meet nutritional requirements.

Parents should know, however, that they may not be avoiding chemical exposure by opting for formula, which can contain chemical residues left over from its raw materials. If you need to use a formula, consider an organic variety.

— Source: EarthTalk; from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine