Anoher Reason to Avoid the Cow!

Breast-feeding Could Save Lives and Money

A cost analysis published in the journal Pediatrics, estimates that the lives of 900 babies per year would be saved, along with billions of dollars, if 90 percent of U.S. women fed their babies breast milk for the first 6 months of life.


The findings suggests that there are hundreds of deaths and costly illnesses each year from health problems that breast feeding may help prevent. These include stomach viruses, ear infections, asthma, juvenile diabetes. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and even childhood leukemia.


Breast milk contains antibodies that help babies fight infections, and can affect insulin levels in the blood, which may make breast-fed babies less likely to develop diabetes and obesity.


The analysis studied 10 common childhood illnesses, costs of treating those illnesses, including hospitalization, and the level of disease protection other studies have linked with breastfeeding. The $13 billion in estimated losses due to the low breast-feeding rate includes an economists' calculation partly based on lost potential lifetime wages - $10.56 million per death.