Guest Article, Dietician Shwetha Bhatia
#Mothers have long been told that “breast is best” when it comes to feeding newborn babies, but a small experiment suggests at least some of the benefits may have nothing to do with the #milk itself.
#Pediatricians recommend that mothers exclusively #breastfeed #infants until they’re at least 6 months old because it can bolster babies’ #immune systems and reduce their risk of ear and respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, allergies, obesity and diabetes. While there’s plenty of research documenting these benefits, less is known about exactly how breastfeeding might cause these improvements in babies’ health.
Researchers studied levels of the stress hormone cortisol in babies who were exclusively breastfed for their first five months and another set of babies who were not. When infants were exposed to a #stressful situation – their mothers ignoring them – researchers found more of the “fight-or-flight” stress response in these babies.
#Cortisol is part of the body’s ‘flight or fight’ reaction, the body’s major response to stress, and too much or too little cortisol can be harmful and is related to a wide range of mental and physical health #disorders in children and adults.
#Nurturing #behavior regulates the infant’s physiological response to stress. These effects are permanent – they last into adulthood and there is evidence that these changes can be passed on to the next generation.
Results suggest that nurturing behavior by mothers like #cuddling and holding infants might benefit newborns even if they drank formula from bottles when breastfeeding was not possible.
It’s possible that the increased #maternal #bonding that occurs with breastfeeding may alter babies’ stress response and make infants more #resilient when they have stressful experiences.
So the beneficial impact of breast feeding may be at least two-fold: better #nutrition and more resilient #emotional #development!