Topic of the Day:
What are the Benefits of Feeding Expressed Milk?
Providing expressed breastmilk is a wonderful choice when breastfeeding does not work out.
There are many advantages to providing breastmilk over formula. The risks of formula are well documented. They seem to be cumulative, meaning the more the baby gets, and the sooner the baby gets it, the more likely he is to experience the associated problems.
Breastmilk -- whether expressed or offered from the breast -- offers health benefits. You are most certainly reducing the increased risk of these diseases, known to be more common in formula-fed infants: sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), ear infection, respiratory infection, meningitis, Type I diabetes, childhood lymphomas, leukemia, diarrhea, reflux disease, allergies and asthma just to name a few.
Though most research has been done comparing infants exclusively breastfed for three to six months to formula fed babies, I think it is reasonable to assume that many of the advantages of expressed breastmilk over formula are nearly the same as breastfeeding.
There also seems to be a dose-dependent aspect, meaning the more formula received, the more likely the baby is to experience the risks of formula. (Kristine, et al 2000) One study even showed that the babys intellect was tied to receiving breastmilk, not the process of breastfeeding, or the intelligence of the parents, as was argued in response to earlier studies.
