30 Wonderful Benefits of Breastfeeding 🥛 Your Baby and Toddler ...

Want to know about the the benefits of breastfeeding?

Congratulations on your bundle of joy! The World Health Organization and American Academy of Pediatrics have explained the many benefits of breastfeeding. While breastfeeding won’t be or can’t be for every mother and her baby, if you can breastfeed or are on the fence about breastfeeding consider these thirty benefits of why breastfeeding is beneficial for you and for your baby.

Remember this must be between biological mother and biological baby. Breastmilk produced in each woman is made specifically only for her baby and it changes as the baby gets older. Breastmilk cannot be replicated in any way specifically for that baby or babies, if twins, by formula or by another woman. The most important thing is to nourish and love your baby and be open minded because some babies simply don’t take to breastfeeding even after help from a lactation consultant.

If you can and want to breastfeed or are weighing your options, here are thirty proven facts to make you feel you’re making the right choice for your little lad or lass. All studies are done on babies who were exclusively breastfed for six months. So, here we go with all the benefits of breastfeeding.

1. Asthma

Breastfed babies have a lower risk of asthma in life.

2. Childhood Leukemia

Breastfed babies have a lower risk of developing childhood leukemia.

3. Ear Infections

Breastfed babies rarely get ear infections.

4. Childhood Obesity

Breastfed babies have a lower risk of childhood obesity throughout their childhood.

5. Lower Respiratory Infections

If you breastfed your baby you’ll be making fewer trips to the pediatrician for bronchitis and other nasty lung conditions.

6. Type 2 Diabetes

Your breastfed baby will grow up to have a lower chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

7. SIDS

For some reason, black male babies are sadly most affected by SIDS which stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. If you are a black mother with a black son absolutely please consider breastfeeding. Breastfed babies are less likely to pass away from SIDS.

8. Colostrum is Packed with Nutrients

Colostrum is a yellow, syrupy breastmilk that your newborn feeds on in the first few days of her life. This rich gold is jam-packed with nutrients.

9. Lower Risk of Breast Cancer for You

Breastfeeding fights all types of cancer for you, Mom!

10. Lower Risk of Ovarian Cancer

Whoever thought that breastmilk was a cancer battler?

11. Lower Risk of Uterine Cancer

Look at all these cancer-fighting benefits from breastfeeding. Perhaps they are changing your mind about bottle feeding or at least supplementing breastmilk with formula?

12. Lose Weight

You’re sore, you’re tired, you’re stitched up and you also feel like a whale. You might be battling postpartum depression and taking your excess weight unnecessarily hard on yourself. Breastfeeding helps you lose weight. You burn 400 calories for every ounce your baby sucks, and if you have twins, well, you’re doubly blessed.

13. So Much Cheaper than Formula

Now, let’s not knock formula. No, it will never come close to being as awesome as breastmilk, but some mothers simply cannot breastfeed and some mothers need to sleep more than three hours in a row so supplementing your baby at night with a bottle of formula isn’t the end of the world, but formula is expensive. Breastmilk is free and available in any type of weather, at any time ready to go.

14. Breastmilk is Packed Full of Nutrients

Nature is amazing. Your breastmilk is made specifically for your baby between biological mother and biological child. It’s packed full of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

15. Bonding

Oxytocin is released during breastfeeding, allowing you to bond.

16. Lowered Risk of Osteoporosis for You

Good news!

17. Quicker Healing

Giving birth or having a C-section is not easy. A lot of people don’t understand that being a C-section momma means you have been through extremely serious surgery. Breastfeeding allows for quicker healing regardless of how your baby came into this world.

18. Delayed Menstruation

Call it nature’s way of spacing out your children, the longer you breastfeed the longer your period holds off, usually between eight and twelve months.

19. La Leche League Friendships

Breastfeeding can be hard, but what helps is meeting other breastfeeding moms through your La Leche League clubs. What a nice way to develop new friendships for you and your babies.

20. Toddlers Still Benefit from Nutrients in Breastmilk

Up to age two, a child can still receive plenty of nutrients that his or her body still needs from breastmilk as they eat a normal, healthy, organic as much as possible diet of food.

21. Calms a Toddler

Visit any culture very different from western culture and what will you see? Whether you are in the plains of Mongolia or the jungles of Peru, you’ll see toddlers and even preschoolers who are breastfed. These little tykes are much calmer than their western counterparts. When a toddler or preschool-aged child is about to throw a full blown tantrum, mothers in Peru and Mongolia lure them over with some breastfeeding time, and it works every time.

22. Boosts Brain Development

Studies show that the longer a mother breastfeeds, the higher her child scores on IQ tests and spatial reasoning.

23. Breastmilk Boosts Immune Systems in Toddlers

Don’t care what the nasty people say when you’re out and breastfeeding your two and a half or three year old in public. Your little one is likely to be the last to get sick from daycare and the first to get over the illness.

24. More Independence

It might seem the opposite, I mean after all you’re still breastfeeding your two-year-old or three-year-old, but studies show that self-weaned children much better independence.

25. Let Them Decide

No, they aren’t going to breastfeed forever.

26. Breastfeeding is Handy in a Disaster

Let’s say a natural disaster happens, such as a blizzard or a tornado. It could be very hard, even impossible, to feed your baby or toddler. In a natural disaster, breastfeeding could very likely save the life of your baby, and if you need to breastfeed even your five-year-old before you’re able to get clean water and food go ahead. You do whatever you need to do to keep your babies alive, momma!

27. Reduced Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Moms who breastfeed even just six months have a lowered risk of rheumatoid arthritis.

28. Reduced Risk of Hypertension in Breastfeeding Moms

Breastfeeding makes the heart grow fonder and healthier.

29. Great for Moms with Diabetes

Did you know that breastfeeding mothers with diabetes get to decrease their insulin requirements?

30. Easier in the Middle of the Night

The last thing you want to do is have to make formula for an already screaming baby at 3:30am.

Be sure to talk to your doctor about whether breastfeeding is right for you and your baby, and reach out to a lactation consultant for tips on proper positioning during breastfeeding.