The Effects of Breast Feeding on Infant Nutrition
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The subject of this paper is the effects of breast-feeding on infant nutrition and development as compared to the effects of bottle feeding. The issue of breast-feeding versus bottle feeding has been greatly debated by scientists, pediatricians and parents. Determining the benefits of breast-feeding infants is critical in enabling parents to make an informative choice when deciding to breast-feed or bottle feed their infants. Some scientists have found that breast milk contains elements that provide greater immunity to infants than formula milk, thus preventing them from getting infections (Rosenblith, 1992, p. 169). Furthermore, there is a close association between maternal-infant bonding and breast-feeding (Rosenblith, 1992, p. 169). Breast-feeding requires constant intimate physical contact between the mother and infant. After birth, the mother needs the baby to nurse in order to stimulate the initial flow of milk. The more the baby nurses, the greater the flow of the milk (Rosenblith, 1992, p. 167-168). Therefore, breast-feeding contributes to the relationship between the mother and infant, which ultimately has a positive impact on the development of the infant. In fact, some researchers have focused on the effects of the breast-feeding and early mother-child contact on infants. Klaus and Kennell (1976) found that more infants in the experimental group, who were allowed to interact with their mothers immediately after delivery, continued to breast-feed at six months th
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ermore, the sick infants and controls were weighed on the day of admission and again when the signs of dehydration had disappeared (Fuchs et al., 1996, p. 392).
The results of this study revealed that there was a strong relationship between the type of milk consumed and dehydration caused by diarrhea. Although children who were never breastfed were not susceptible to dehydration, children who had been breastfed and stopped were at great risk. They were particularly prone to contracting diarrhea immediately after weaning for as long as six months (Fuchs et al., 1996, p. 392).
In this study, there were critical problems that could have affected the results. The experiment could have been improved by exploring the significance of the fact that children who were never breastfed before fared better against diarrhea than children who were in the weaning period. Therefore, in this case, breast-feeding did not provide any long-term protective effects. In fact, it affected the immunity of the children. This important question was not explored in the experiment. It also contradicted the results of the studies that indicated that there were lingering protective effects of breast-feeding against wheezing.
The interpretation of results
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David Newburg, Fernando Martinez, Larry Clark, Jose Martines, Sutcliffe Clark, , Klaus Kennell, Specifically Weinberg, Victora Martines, et al, Ceriani Pickering, et al 1998, al 1998, wright et al, wright et, recurrent wheezing, breast milk, effects breast-feeding, human milk, newburg et al, rotavirus infection, fuchs et, newburg et, fuchs et al, et al 1996,
Approximate Word count = 3970
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page)
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