Abstract
The choice between breastfeeding and bottle (formula) feeding appears to be one of the fundamental decisions that await both new and expectant parents. Quite a number of health bodies including World Health Organization (WHO), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and also the American Medical Association (AMA), all recommend breastfeeding to be the appropriate choice for infants (Andres, Cleves, Bellando, Pivik, Casey, & Badger, 2012). Breastfeeding assists defend against several chronic conditions, prevent allergies, and protect against infections. The AAP, in particular, recommends that infants be breastfed exclusively for the first six (6) months following their birth. Beyond that, breastfeeding is advisable until at minimum twelve (12) months, but can be further extended if both the baby and the mother are willing (Andres et al. 2012). This paper tries to evaluate the various viewpoints relating to both breastfeeding and bottle feeding. In essence, it seeks to address the following questions: What are the facts, benefits and challenges of both breastfeeding and bottle (formula) feeding? How to choose between breastfeeding and bottle feeding? What are some of the factors or medical conditions that dictate whether to opt for breastfeeding or formula feeding?
Introduction
Even though medical experts share the belief that breast milk offers the best choice nutritionally for babies, it has been noted that not all mothers can manage to exclusively breastfeed their infants. For the majority of them, the choice between bottle feeding, breastfeeding and a combination of the two lies largely on their lifestyle, particular medical conditions, planning and organization skills, and comfort levels. For women who choose not to or are not able to breastfeed, bottle feeding presents a healthy substitute owing to the fact that bottle feeding offers substantial nutrients to babies for their growth and development. The major worry for mothers with regards to bottle feeding is based on the fear of not bonding with their infants. However, the fact is, loving mothers always tend to build special bonds with their young ones. And feeding-regardless of the manner in which it is administered-offers a great time and opportunity for strengthening that bond. Usually, debates regarding breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding often come out as if it is an either-or decision. However, research has shown that a third of the women population use a combination of the two. Given that the choice between bottle feeding, breastfeeding, and combination of both is a personal one, this paper weighs the pros and cons of every method in attempts at helping mothers decide the best method for their babies.
Facts and Advantages of Breastfeeding
It has been medically shown that babies who are breastfed experience less hospitalizations and infections compared to their bottle-fed counterparts. This element of health improvement on breastfed infants is because during breastfeeding, the mother passes on germ-fighting organisms and antibodies to the baby thereby strengthening their immune system (Andres et al. 2012). As a result, chances of the infant getting infections are lowered. Some of these infections that the infant is protected against include meningitis, respiratory diseases, allergies, asthma, obesity, ear infections, diabetes and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) among others (Begum, 2014). It is particularly useful for babies who are usually born prematurely as they stand a higher chance of getting infections due to their less developed immune system.
Infants that are breastfed equally experience less difficulties regarding digestion as compared to their bottle fed counterparts. This phenomenon is due to the fact that breast milk contains components such as lactose, protein (like casein and whey), and fat that are easily to digestible, a fact which reduces cases of constipation and diarrhea among the breastfed infants (Begum, 2014). Naturally, breast milk contains most of the minerals and vitamins (with the exception of vitamin D) that are required by the new born while on the other hand, formula milk contains all the fundamental nutrients and vitamin D. However, in as much as bottle feed matches the components of breast milk, the latter still has one advantage over the formula nutrition; it is a living substance manufactured uniquely by a mother for her own baby in a process that cannot be copied by factories.
Another argument is that breast milk is free whereas bottle feed is bought at some cost, for which an expense is incurred in terms of money, time and other resources. All a breastfeeding mother has to do is to avail herself for the baby to feed. Unless the mother is pumping out the breast milk before feeding it to the baby, she does not have to worry about buying nipples, bottles, and other supplies which require money. A breastfeeding mother also travels less frequently to the doctor or lactation consultant, and spends less on prescribed medicine (either herbal medicines or over-the-counter drugs) since their infants suffer from fewer infections as compared to bottle-fed infants.
Unlike bottle feeding, breastfeeding exposes babies to various tastes and flavors. In normal cases, nursing mothers do require approximately 500 extra calories each day. This element of extra calories implies that these mothers have to eat a wide range of well-balanced diet (foods and drinks). This occurrence translates to the introduction and exposure of breastfed infants to various flavors and tastes obtained from the mothers’ diet. Again, by naturally tasting diets of their ‘culture’-through regular breastfeeding, these breastfed infants become ready for accepting solid foods when they are weaned (Perrine, Galuska, Thompson, & Scanlon, 2014).
Additionally, breastfeeding offers a lot of convenience to both the baby and the mother. With no frequent-runs, some of which are last-minute, to the stores in search of more formulas, milk from the breast is normally available and fresh whether the mother is at home or about and out. Furthermore, when breastfeeding, there is no need for washing the nipples and bottles or the idea of warming them up at inconveniencing times such as during late night hours because breast milk is available at the right temperature.
Moreover, some research works have proved that children who are exclusively breastfed are smart in terms of possessing slightly higher IQs in comparisons to their formula fed counterparts. Also, the aspect of skin-to-skin contact between the baby and the mother enhances the emotional attachment between the two (Field, Diego, Hernandez-Reif, Figueiredo, Ezell, & Siblalingappa, 2010). This is an important element in children’s psychological developments, especially regarding to disorders that teenagers develop due to emotional disconnections with their parents. As a result, breastfed infants grow up to be happy, jovial and healthy.
Just like their babies, mother too benefit from breastfeeding. The ability and capacity to fully nourish an infant is helpful to the mother for her confidence in caring and raising a baby. Breastfeeding equally takes part in the burning of calories and assist in the shrinkage of the uterus. This aspect helps nursing mothers to quickly return to their initial body shapes and weights. Additionally, other studies have proved that breastfeeding enables the reduction of risks such as diabetes, high blood pressure, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and can equally assist in reducing the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers (Hörnell, Lagström, Lande, & Thorsdottir, 2013).
Breastfeeding Challenges
Although breastfeeding can appear easy from the first instance for certain mothers, it however, take some time for others to get used to it. Both babies and mothers need considerable levels of patience to get used to breastfeeding routines. Some of the common issues and concerns for expectant and new mothers, particularly during the early weeks and months following birth, may include:
Firstly, issues with personal comfort. At the beginning, especially during the initial stages of breastfeeding, mothers may feel uncomfortable. However, with proper support, practice and education, mothers would definitely overcome this personal comfort issue. Secondly, frequency and time of feeding is another concern since breastfeeding demands a good share of commitment and time from the mothers, particularly at the early stages when infants tend to breastfeed more often (Hörnell et al. 2013). The schedule for breastfeeding or milk pumping during day times may make the practice harder for some mothers to travel, work or run activities. Owing to the fact that breastfed infants do not require frequent feeds compared to formula fed babies since breast milk is digested faster than formula, breastfeeding mothers are likely to find themselves in demand after say, every 2-3 hours during the early breastfeeding stages. (Hörnell et al. 2013). The third issue involves the diet of breastfeeding mothers since they are expected to beware of their foods and drinks as they can be easily passed to their babies through breastfeeding. For instance, breastfeeding mothers need to limit intake of fish that are rich in mercury and also limit or carefully know when to drink alcohol (preferably at least 2 hours wait after single alcohol intake before breastfeeding) and caffeine (should be kept below 300 milligrams or less each day), which may result into issues such as irritability and restlessness in some infants.
Finally, maternal medicine, breast surgery and other medical conditions such as HIV or AIDS, and those involving chemotherapy alongside treatments with other particular medicines may make the practice of breastfeeding unsafe (Begum, 2014). Therefore, breastfeeding mothers need to consult with their doctors concerning the safety of medicine administration while breastfeeding, including herbal and over-the-counter drugs. Also, mothers who are victims of breast surgery, like reduction may experience difficulties regarding milk supply especially following severe on their milk ducts.
Facts and Advantages of Bottle Feeding
Commercially made baby formulas are alternative nutrition to milk from the mother’s breast, and sometimes contain nutrients and vitamins that breastfed infants may require from supplements. Prepared under sterile environments and conditions, bottle formulas attempt to be duplicates of breast milk using complicated combinations of sugar, vitamins, proteins, and fats which are not possible to be prepared at home (Perrine et al. 2014). Therefore, if a mother does not want to breastfeed her infant, for various reasons known to her, she should not try making her own formulas but instead get only commercially manufactured formulas.
Besides medical conditions and concerns that are likely to prevent mothers from breastfeeding, here are some other reasons alongside stressfulness and difficulty that may make mothers chose to bottle feed: Firstly, is the issue of convenience and flexibility. Bottle feeding implies that either parent, or even the caregiver, stand the chance to feed the infant a bottle at any given time. Even though this equally possible with mothers who pump milk, bottle feeding offers mothers with the opportunity to share feeding roles as well as extending bonding that comes with sharing of the feeding duties. Bottle feeding is also flexible in the sense that the moment a bottle has been prepared, formula-feeding mothers have the freedom of leaving their infants with caregivers or partners knowing that the infant’s feeding requirements have been taken care of (Field et al. 2010). Similarly, there are no needs to schedule work, pump milk or consider other activities concerning the infant’s feeding plans. After all, bottle-feeding mothers do not require private places for nursing their babies in public. Also, given that bottle feeds are least digested compared to breast milk, bottle-fed infants normally require less frequency and time of feeding than their breastfed counterparts. Finally, mothers who chose to bottle-feed do not necessarily have to mind their diet-foods and drinks that can potentially affect their infants.
Challenges of Bottle Feeding
Just like breastfeeding, bottle-feeding presents some challenges that need to be considered when choosing whether or not to formula feed. These challenges include: firstly and foremost, the absence of antibodies. Not even a single antibody that is available in breast milk is present in manufactured formulas. It therefore means that bottle feeding would not offer infants the added protection against illness and infections that breastfeeding does (Field et al. 2010).
Again, bottle feeding cannot equal the complexity of breastfeeding since manufactured formulas are yet to match the changing complexity of breast milk that obeys the changes required by babies. Additionally, bottle feeding requires good organization and planning in ensuring that what the baby needs is available whenever the need arises (Perrine et al. 2014). This is contrary to the breast milk which is unlimited, readily available, and offered at the right temperature. Mothers have to buy bottle feeds and ensure that they are readily on hand to eliminate instances of late-night trips to the store. This availability includes necessary supplies such as nipples and bottles, which are equally expected to be always accessible, and ready to be used else the baby will be very fussy and hungry (Hörnell et al. 2013). Since bottle feeding is done between 8 and 10 times a day, mothers may quickly get overburdened when they are not organized and prepared.
Additionally, bottle feeding has the possibility of generating gas and causing constipation. This aspect causes bottle-fed infants to experience more gas production and firmer bowel movements as compared to their breastfed counterparts (Andres et al. 2012). Again, it can be expensive to bottle feed. Powdered formula, for instance, is the cheapest, followed by the concentrated one. The ready-to-feed formulas are the most expensive. Further, specialty formulas, like soy and hypoallergenic are likely to cost more-often far much more than the primary formulas. To show further, the expenses incurred on basic formulas may run to approximately $1,500 during the initial year of life.
Choosing between Breastfeeding and Bottle feeding
Conclusion
In summary, there exist advantages and disadvantages regarding both bottle-feeding and breastfeeding. The ultimate decision lies with the parents. However, while weighing the pros and cons presented in this paper, breastfeeding appears to be the best option both for the mother and the baby unless dictated otherwise by medical conditions and situations, for which, a doctor or lactation specialist must approve. These advantages range from nutritional point of view to costs and lifestyle. Regarding nutrition, breastfeeding offer the following: perfect nutrients balance, presence of raised levels of nutrients, the possibility of easy digestion and absorption of these nutrients, the milk content varies depending on the milk generation stage that fortunately meets the ever-changing nutritional demands of the baby, and that the baby determines the amount of intake in the case of breastfeeding. Additionally, breast milk is absolutely free unlike costly bottle formulas. With regards to comfort, breastfeeding does not require preparation time. Furthermore, breast milk is always available at the perfect temperature, anytime and anyplace.
References
Andres, A., Cleves, M. A., Bellando, J. B., Pivik, R. T., Casey, P. H., & Badger, T. M. (2012). Developmental status of 1-year-old infants fed breast milk, cow’s milk formula, or soy formula. Pediatrics, 129(6), 1134-1140.
Begum, M. U. H. (2014). Breast Feeding versus Formula Feeding and Diarrheal Diseases in Infants and Children-A Review. Journal of Bangladesh College of Physicians & Surgeons, 32(1), 26.
Hörnell, A., Lagström, H., Lande, B., & Thorsdottir, I. (2013). Breastfeeding, introduction of other foods and effects on health: a systematic literature review for the 5 th Nordic Nutrition Recommendations. Food & nutrition research, 57.
Perrine, C. G., Galuska, D. A., Thompson, F. E., & Scanlon, K. S. (2014). Breastfeeding duration is associated with child diet at 6 years. Pediatrics, 134(Supplement 1), S50-S55.
Field, T., Diego, M., Hernandez-Reif, M., Figueiredo, B., Ezell, S., & Siblalingappa, V. (2010). Depressed mothers and infants are more relaxed during breastfeeding versus bottlefeeding interactions: Brief report. Infant Behavior and Development, 33(2), 241-244.
