Babies Aren't the Only Beneficiaries of Breast-Feeding: "Babies Aren't the Only Beneficiaries of Breast-Feeding
Carrie Boretz for The New York Times

By LIZ GALST

"Breast is best' "— that is what health care providers and advocates tell mothers who are making decisions about how to feed their newborns.

What is usually meant by that statement is this: compared with bottle feeding, breast-feeding offers incomparable benefits to children, even to those fed that way for a relatively short time. Among the benefits are reduced risks of asthma, lymphoma, sudden infant death syndrome, meningitis, pneumonia, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies, infections, diarrhea and colds. In a majority of studies, breast-fed children have I.Q.'s 3 to 10 points higher than children who are nursed by the bottle. ..."