Traditional logic indicates that if there were an easy, all-natural way to reduce health care costs, such a recovery method should instantly be utilized. But the United States of America doesn’t appear to be paying attention. You see, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that breastfeeding for children over 6 months of age drops off dramatically, well below what their Nutritious People standards recommend. Medical experts believe that this breastfeeding reduction increases pediatric costs dramatically, as children who don’t breastfeed are proven to be more susceptible in general to a variety of diseases that have contributed to increased rates of infant mortality.
Nursing makes for Healthy Individuals
Dr. William Dietz of the CDC told Medpage Today that “Meeting the national breastfeeding initiation goal is a good accomplishment in women’s and children’s overall health, but we have more work ahead”. That work is made clear by CDC study findings: 57 percent of United States infants are no longer breastfeeding at six months, and 78 percent are done by one year.
Nursing pariahs
Breastfeeding rates vary wildly by state within the 2007 CDC Nutritious Individuals study – 90 percent of newborns are breastfeeding in Utah, versus about 53 percent in Mississippi, for example. State support for breastfeeding policies are a substantial part of the study. At the time of the study, 21 states still had no breastfeeding-friendly facilities, and also the same states (plus others) tended to have hospitals with lower ratings for quality of maternity care and infant feeding instruction. Two years after the 2007 CDC study, the National Conference of State Legislatures noted a marked improvement within the overall penetration of breastfeeding legislation across the United States, however it is nevertheless not universal. In some states, breastfeeding is nevertheless looked upon with disdain, particularly in public (regardless how discrete the mother may be). As the 2009 Facebook scandal involving a ban on breastfeeding photos proves, some segments of The Uni! ted States simply don’t understand what it means to be human. Infant formula makers certainly don’t object, although individuals who care might protest as they’re with the international Nestlé boycott.
No breastfeeding is an expensive decision
According to Dr. Melissa Bartick of Harvard Medical School and Arnold Reinhold of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, the growing absence of colostrum-rich breast milk in children’s diets has caused pediatric costs to skyrocket. ”$3.6 billion could be saved if nursing rates were increased to levels of the Nutritious Individuals objectives,” according to Bartick and Reinhold’s report in Pediatrics journal. That was based on 2001 information. The authors update the study, with startling results. For kids 6 months and younger who are fed exclusively via breastfeeding, Bartick and Reinhold found that if there was at least 90 percent compliance (the Healthy Individuals recommended minimum), the United States could now save “$13 billion per year and prevent an excess of 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants”.
What about infant formula? While inferior to breast milk in terms of disease prevention and growth promotion, it is also costly. Some mothers have personal medical reasons for using infant formula, and being in the position of needing money for costly formula – via payday loan or otherwise – is a tough place to be.
Additional reading
Pediatrics
pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2009-1616v1
CDC Breast Feeding Report Card
cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/BreastfeedingReportCard2010.pdf
Medpage Today
medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/GeneralPediatrics/22162
National Conference of State Legislatures
ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=14389
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_milk
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