Breast Feeding Basics

Moms generally choose for their children what they feel is beneficial, convenient, or harmless. But what if you found out that something that you thought was a harmless formula choice was actually dangerous for your baby and far from convenient?

You probably don’t hear this from your pediatrician, but many babies die every year because of formula. It’s true that most of these babies already have health problems, but the choice to use formula can make the difference between life and death. (see the chart below for more details)

Cause of death	Actual U.S. infant deaths (1999)	Relative risk for formula-fed infants	Estimated IMR for breastfed babies	Deaths if all were breastfed	Deaths if all were formula-fed	Lives saved if all were breastfed
Congenital abnormality	5500	1.5	1.1	4400	6600	1100
Prematurity	4500	2.5	.643	2570	6430	1930
SIDS	2700	4	.27	1080	4320	1620
Complications of pregnancy & birth	2400	1.25	.533	2135	2670	270
Respiratory distress & infections	1750	4	.175	700	2800	1050
Accidents	850	1	.213	850	850	0
Bacterial infection	700	3	.087	350	1050	350
Circulatory problems	650	1.5	.13	520	780	130
Necrotizing enterocolitis	400	8	.022	90	710	310
Diarrhea	300	2.5	.043	170	430	130
Meningitis	100	3	.014	55	170	45
Cancer	100	2	.02	80	160	20
SUBTOTALS	19950	2.075	3.25	13000	26970	6955
All other	8050	2	1.6	6440	12880	1610
TOTALS	28000	2	4.7	18665	37335 IMR 9.4	9335

The Ugly Truth About Formula
From the above statistics, we see that formula feeding costs American babies more than four additional lives per thousand. The final relative risk for formula feeding comes out to 2 — that’s double the risk of death for American infants who are fed with formula, compared with babies who are fed naturally.

A multitude of studies demonstrate that when breastfeeding is accompanied by formula supplementation, illness and death rates are much closer to those of babies who are fully formula-fed. Studies also reveal conclusively that the longer breastfeeding lasts, the greater the measurable difference in illness and death rates.

Read Dr. Palmer’s full page here

According to UNICEF:

Improved breastfeeding practices and reduction of artificial feeding could save an estimated 1.5 million children a year.

Formula might seem like a harmless alternative to breastfeeding, but in reality many children die because their system can’t handle the burden of artificial infant formula. Don’t let your child become a statistic.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Formula.
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