What’s wrong with formula? For starters, it’s just not human

Caution: Not breastfeeding may be hazardous to your baby’s--and your--health. Learn the facts.
When formula-feeding first became widespread in the 20th century, it was touted as a scientific advancement, a physician-endorsed nutritional improvement for modern infants. Now, a hundred years and thousands of scientific studies later, we know that feeding nonhuman milk can be detrimental to your newborn’s health.

In fact, during the first year of life, formula-feeding increases U.S. infant deaths by 27 percent. Even more striking, during a baby’s first three months, exclusive formula feeding increases infant mortality by 61 percent (Chen and Rogan 2004). A 2010 article estimated that each year, exclusive breastfeeding for six months by 90 percent of U.S. mothers could prevent 911 infant deaths and save the U.S. healthcare system $13 billion (Bartick and Reinhold 2010).

Babies who are deprived of the living antibodies of human milk, are sick more often, have more cases, and more severe cases, of respiratory and gastrointestinal infections and are hospitalized more often and for a longer time. The medical evidence shows that not breastfeeding increases a baby’s risk of ear infections, diarrhea, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), obesity, respiratory tract infections, diabetes, asthma, and childhood leukemia. Compared with premature infants who receive human milk, those who receive formula have future IQs that are 8–15 points lower.

The U.S. government considers the promotion of breastfeeding a national health issue and experts such as the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. After six months, they recommend continued breastfeeding along with solid foods for at least one to two years.

Adapted from the book Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers by Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, FILCA and Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, PhD, IBCLC

Sources

¹ Moreland J, Coombs J. Promoting and supporting breast-feeding. Am Fam Physician. 2000;61(7):2093-100, 2103-4.

² Arenz S, Ruckerl R, Koletzko B, von Kries R. Breast-feeding and childhood obesity--a systematic review. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004;28(10):1247-1256.

³ Chen A, Rogan WJ. Breastfeeding and the risk of postneonatal death in the United States. Pediatrics. 2004;113(5):e435-e439.

⁴ Bartick, M., and A. Reinhold. 2010. The burden of suboptimal breastfeeding in the United States: A pediatric cost analysis. Pediatrics 125(5):e1048–1056.

⁵ Ip S, Chung M, Raman G, Chew P, Magula N, DeVine D, Trikalinos T, Lau J. Breastfeeding and Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes in Developed Countries. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2007. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment No. 153.