Breastfeed 1 Year or more. Babies love boobies, naturally.



For every 597 women who optimally breastfeed, one maternal or child death is prevented. Policies to increase optimal breastfeeding could result in substantial public health gains. Breastfeeding has a larger impact on women’s health than previously appreciated. — Harvard Medical School Study 2016

Nurses of The RINJ Foundation are instructing women to breastfeed their baby for a year. Baby should be breastfed exclusively with no other intake for the first six months and better yet, for a year. Photo: Breastfed baby at one year by Melissa Hemingway, Feminine-PerspectiveNurses of The RINJ Foundation are instructing women to breastfeed their baby for a year. Baby should be breastfed exclusively with no other intake for the first six months minimum and better yet, for a year.  “Breastfed baby at one year” Photo by Melissa Hemingway, Feminine-Perspective.

by Melissa Hemingway Feminine-Perspective Staff

I have made the rounds of our RSAC doctors and nurse practitioners in the Middle East, East and South East of Asia as well as Europe, South America, Africa and North America, plus dietitians and families. Because of horrid water supplies and hunger regions, infant and maternal mortality rates are rocketing upwards. How can we at least mitigate the problem: clean water, market gardening and breastfeeding.

Sister, they all have the same message for you:

If you are healthy, please breastfeed your baby. Benefits are big. Could save your life. Your antibodies could save baby’s life.

“We help rape survivors deliver and care for their babies.  We prefer mothers to breastfeed their infants for as long as possible past the first year, especially where food and water supply regularity is unstable,” says Nurse Behar in eastern Syria. “Our patients face environmental hardships. Breastfeeding mitigates the mother’s hypertensive heart disease impact and stabilizes the infant. It’s nature’s blessing.”

You would need to be very, very sick before your doctor would tell you not to breast feed your baby.

If you are infected with HIV or similar immunodeficiency-causing viruses, it is possible to deliver your baby without infecting the baby by using prophylaxis drugs.  Once your baby has been delivered infection free, breast milk will infect the baby hence a good baby formula solution is one option you have for your baby but a better one may be a natural mother’s milk-bank. Yes they exist in many locales. Please be very careful not to expose your baby to infection risks of any kind. Be overly health conscious and your baby should be fine if seeing a pediatrician regularly.

If you are abusing drugs or alcohol, you are not healthy. Stop that the minute you become pregnant if not before; see your doctor to get healthy; and then you can carry to term, deliver and breastfeed your baby in safety.

If you have a cold or flu, don’t worry, wear a mask so that you don’t sneeze on her, but please breast feed your little darling. Those viruses are not passed through mother’s milk. On the good side, the antibodies are passed to baby. That means that if a sibling has brought the virus home from school, baby is being inoculated in a manner of speaking.

Don’t Believe Baby Formula Lies: Babies Need Boobies

Around the world, but particularly in developed nations, the birth rate has been in free fall. It needs to drop to a total fertility rate of about 2.1 everywhere.

Because of overpopulation and food shortages, the human race should only seek to replace itself on Earth and not to increase its total population. The magic number is 9 billion it seems. Of course it depends on which research groups one speaks to but not exceeding 9 billion population sounds like a good plan. Currently there are 7.6 billion humans.

The falling birth rate in developed nations has curbed the sales of baby formula. Powdered baby milk sales have plummeted. That’s not so bad. Powdered baby milk chosen over mother’s milk kills babies.

Because of the plummeting sales of baby formula in developed nations, the makers of these products want to sell them all over the world. They want developing nations to convince mothers to buy their products and they are willing to (financially support) officials and to lie about the value of breastfeeding  versus the worth of baby formula. Nothing beats breastfeeding is the truth they will lie about. They are worse than the cigarette companies that told us smoking is safe. How many hearts and lives were broken by that lie?

A recent Harvard University study concluded that roughly 3.3 thousand lives per year would be saved in the USA alone if optimum breastfeeding advice were adopted by mothers. Both mothers and babies are at risk by not breastfeeding in the optimal manner we have suggested above.

 

Harvard Study Proves what we thought we knew. Breastfeeding improves infant survivability enormously.

Do not listen to powdered milk makers and other baby formula providers. The proof in the field, working in war zones, poverty zones and refugee camps where infant and maternal mortality is horrible, is that breastfeeding saves lives. It’s healthier for mom and better for baby. Breastfeeding all babies for over a year could prevent millions of deaths around the world. We see the difference and the babies who are not breast fed are not healthy by comparison. Many die.

All countries must encourage their citizens to breastfeed on the grounds that research overwhelmingly shows its health benefits. Women must be made alert to inaccurate marketing by formula milk firms. Mother’s milk is best for baby. There are no good alternatives.

Additional reading from UNICEF on  Breast-Feeding

This literature is old, trusted information. There are some things we disagree with.

Based on our experience, while it may be true that six months of breastfeeding baby is a good plan, it is the bare essential.

According to UNICEF in 1999, if every baby were exclusively breastfed from birth, an estimated 1.5 million lives would be saved globally each year. And not just saved, but enhanced, because breast milk is the perfect food for a baby’s first six months of life – no manufactured product can equal it.

We agree but strongly URGE one year of  breastfeeding to allow your baby in the second six months to adapt to solid foods while still having the mainstay of mother’s milk.

Your body has experienced many thousands of microbial attacks in every season of every year you have been alive. In every instance your body evaluated the attackers and produced antibodies that fight viruses and bacteria. Sharing these antibodies with your baby through your breast milk helps baby stay alive. Breastfeeding through a full year delivers to your baby all seasonal microbial challenges your body has learned to handle.

Some of the scientific claims we have heard about the benefits of breastfeeding suggest you can protect your baby from developing allergies, boost your child’s intelligence, protect your child from obesity, reduce your stress level and your risk of postpartum depression and may reduce your risk of some types of cancer.

UNICEF and WHO face large amounts of pressure from nation states whose politicians are financially supported by baby formula manufacturers. Also many politicians are pushed by large employers who do not want to hear about being forced to pay longer maternity leave.

We strongly recommend that you never feed your baby formulae in lieu of breast milk unless you are so sick that you cannot breast feed or for some other reason, breastfeeding fails. Consider natural breast milk banks as a good option.

Go ahead and breast feed your baby until she likes eating solid food instead, or until you both decide to make a change after a year or more of breastfeeding. Yes, 6 months is often cited as a minimum but we are talking optimum and you wouldn’t accept anything but optimum health care from us so we are not going to roll back to minimums on advice, either. Breast feed your baby for a year at least. To be honest, we suspect 6 months is a compromise for profiteers to sell more baby formula. Breast feed your baby for as long as seems natural. That could be as much as two years or more. Work this out with your baby.

Do this. Breastfeeding is part of having a baby. If you need money and hence must plan to go back to work a week after birth, maybe you should not be planning to have a baby. Well, actually you shouldn’t, because the potential for tragedy resulting from a half-hearted effort is too great.

Between six months and a year, feed your infant local fruits and vegetables, mashed the way she likes them, if she is ready. You and your baby will decide.  (She will let you know what she likes and dislikes. Don’t be afraid to try again another day something you think is important because baby will change her likes and dislikes.) Continue to breast feed.

Try this at 7 months:

Early morning and on demand at any time:
BreastfeedingMorning
Breastfeeding
Iron-fortified infant cereal
Mashed strawberries or other soft fruitSnack
Whole grain toast, cut into small pieces or stripsMidday
Breastfeeding
Iron-fortified infant cereal
Hard-boiled egg, mashed, minced, or grated
Cooked and mashed sweet potato or other vegetable

Snack
Unsweetened stewed prunes, pureed

Early evening
Breastfeeding
Ground or finely minced plain, dark chicken or other meat
Cooked and mashed broccoli or other vegetable

Evening and nighttime
Breastfeeding

After two years of breastfeeding, you still wish to breast feed, you and baby will decide what to do. If you stopped breastfeeding after a year, get help from your pediatrician on baby’s diet. Much depends on what is available to you in your part of the world.

We strongly urge parents to raise their baby as a vegetarian for many reasons. This for one reason, creates a healthier person. This is the future. In order to feed every person, the world will need to stop feeding its grains to livestock and start growing food for the human race. The grains alone that feed livestock could feed the human race. Breeding livestock for food takes food from the mouths of billions to feed only a few with meat.

Beans and grains do a better job of providing our bodies with nutrients we get from meat without the accompanying heart disease risk that eating meat brings. Eating eggs might be as dangerous as smoking. There are sound ethical, environmental and health reasons for not eating meat, so here is baby’s vegetarian diet.

 

What you can offer a 17-month old vegetarian baby.

Continue breastfeeding as long as both you and your child want.

Breakfast

Iron-fortified infant cereal

Sliced banana

Breastfeeding or homogenized cow milk (3.25% M.F.)Snack

Whole grain crackers with grated cheese

Sliced strawberries

Lunch

Naan bread, cut into strips, spread thinly with hummus

Grated carrots

Cooked green beans, chopped

Diced mango

Breastfeeding or homogenized cow milk (3.25% M.F.)

Snack

Cottage cheese

Unsweetened stewed prunes, pureed

Supper

Lentil pilaf (mixed dish):

Whole wheat couscous

Cooked lentils

Cooked, diced, zucchini

Diced tomatoes

Chopped, cooked spinachFruit cocktail in juice

Breastfeeding or homogenized cow milk (3.25% M.F.)

Snack

Homemade, whole grain muffin

Canned pears, in juice

Breastfeeding or homogenized cow milk (3.25% M.F.)

Fresh fruits, beans and vegetables are extremely important. Iron-rich meats (for non-vegetarian babies) and cereals are somewhat important. Good fortified cereal grains will supplement this delicious set of staples. Be wary of food allergens, such as fish, iron-fortified infant cereals with wheat, cow milk products, soy and whole eggs. After six months these can be introduced cautiously. Stay away from the dangerous allergens like peanuts for many years.

You will soon see this makes a world of sense.

Mother’s milk is the best for baby.


Having more babies is not a goal. Having healthy, happy babies to replace you and your partner is a very valuable and delightful goal, rich in loving rewards.


 

Harvard University – Harvard Medical School Study

The aim of this study was to quantify the excess cases of pediatric and maternal disease, death, and costs attributable to sub-optimal breastfeeding rates in the United States.Using the current literature on the associations between breastfeeding and health outcomes for nine pediatric and five maternal diseases, we created Monte Carlo simulations modelling a hypothetical cohort of U.S. women followed from age 15 to age 70 years and their children from birth to age 20 years. We examined disease outcomes using (a) 2012 breastfeeding rates and (b) assuming that 90% of infants were breastfed according to medical recommendations. We measured annual excess cases, deaths, and associated costs, in 2014 dollars, using a 2% discount rate.

Annual excess deaths (USA) attributable to suboptimal breastfeeding total 3,340 (95% confidence interval [1,886 to 4,785]), 78% of which are maternal due to myocardial infarction (n = 986), breast cancer (n = 838), and diabetes (n = 473). Excess pediatric deaths total 721, mostly due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (n = 492) and necrotizing enterocolitis (n = 190). Medical costs total $3.0 billion, 79% of which are maternal. Costs of premature death total $14.2 billion.

The number of women needed to breastfeed as medically recommended to prevent an infant gastrointestinal infection is 0.8; acute otitis media, 3; hospitalization for lower respiratory tract infection, 95; maternal hypertension, 55; diabetes, 162; and myocardial infarction, 235. For every 597 women who optimally breastfeed, one maternal or child death is prevented. Policies to increase optimal breastfeeding could result in substantial public health gains. Breastfeeding has a larger impact on women’s health than previously appreciated.