Compare And Contrast Breast Feeding And Formula Feeding

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What is better for infants under two years of age; breast-feeding or formula feeding? How does each affect the child’s health outcome? These are questions many new parents or soon-to-be parents ask. There are benefits to both breastfeeding and formula feeding, but with benefits, there are also risks to each type of feeding. Picking which type of feeding to provide a child is significant because a child grows significantly within the first two years of life. Within these first two years, a child needs the proper amount of adequate nutrition to grow and develop. It is important to determine which feeding is better for infants to help them in this vulnerable stage of life. Do infants who breastfeed have better health outcomes in the first two years of life than …show more content…

It utilized infants from birth to six months of age. Studies were excluded if the formula contained long-chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids, if there were supplements to the mother or infants, if there was contamination of breast milk like lead and mercury, or if mother or child were sick at start or at an increased risk for disease. Convincing and probable evidence was found in favor of breastfeeding on several outcomes. Breastfeeding can decrease the growth and obesity in infants, help maintain normal blood pressure and serum cholesterol levels, and prevent diabetes in childhood. For each month a child was breastfed their BMI decreased and their odds of being obese were reduced by 8%. Breastfeeding was shown to have a small decrease in systolic blood pressure for children. Longer duration of breastfeeding may result in decreased likelihood of developing diabetes. Breastfeeding was also shown to protect infants from overall infections including gastrointestinal and respiratory tract

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