Breastfeeding protects baby against vision defects
In a study in Bangladesh, a breastfeeding was a protective factor for night blindness among preschool-aged children in both rural and urban areas. Breast milk is generally the main, if not the only source, of Vitamin A during a child's first 24 months of life (or for the duration of breastfeeding).
Breastfeeding decrease chances of maternal osteoporosis in later life
The odds that a woman with osteoporosis did not breastfeed her baby was 4 times higher than for a control woman.
Dr. Alan Lucas of the MRC Childhood Nutrition Research Center if London, found that 8-year-olds who were fed formula rather than breastfeed as infants, had less developed bone mineralization than those fed breast milk.
Breastfed babies have less chance of cardiopulmonary distress while feeding
According to a 1990 study, bottle-fed babies are at increased risk of cardiopulmonary disturbances, including prolonged airway closure and obstructed breaths due to repeated swallowing.
Breastfeed babies have less chance of developing ulcerative colitis
This is disease of later life (a severe inflammatory disorder of the colon characterised by the passage of blood and pus), which may be connected with type of feeding in infancy and especially the early introduction of solids.
- In one survey, it was found that people with ulcerative colitis were twice as likely as "normal" people never to have been breastfed.
- Another study showed that people with long-standing ulcerative colitis had high levels of antibodies to cow's milk protein in their blood.
Breastfed babies have less chance of developing necrotising enterecolitis, a bowel infection with high death rate seen almost exclusively in the bottle-fed
Although this is a rare disease, it is virtually never seen in the breastfed child.
