Solutions for dealing with out of control medical expenses are out there. Actually, there’s one very easy, natural remedy. However, as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while three-quarters of infants born within the United States take their first meals via breastfeeding, the rate plummets after six months, which runs contrary to CDC Nutritious People standards. Doctors cited in CDC research make a direct connection between low nursing rates and higher pediatric expenses because of the heightened prospect of disease in infants who aren’t nursed.
Nutritious People are a unit of nursing
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 health, but we have more work ahead”. That work is made clear by CDC study findings: 57 percent of U.S. infants are no longer breastfeeding at six months, and 78 percent are done by one year.
Breastfeeding pariahs
In 2007, the CDC found good variation in breastfeeding rates across The United States. For example, while 90 percent of infants in Utah were breastfed, only 53 percent loved the same benefit in Mississippi. State support for breastfeeding policies are a substantial part of the study. The CDC study found that there were 21 states without appropriate breastfeeding facilities or hospitals that scored low for maternity conveniences and lactation and latching instruction. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there has been improvement on the legislative level since the 2007 CDC study, but there remain states that don’t have specific laws safeguarding the right to breastfeed outside the home in an area other than a cramped restroom. Considering the 2009 Facebook scandal where photos of breastfeeding mothers were removed from the site, questions nevertheless exist as to how civilized Americans are as a lifestyle. And if the information surrounding the long-term boycott of infant formula maker Nestlé are indicative, the culture of hostility toward breastfeeding extends far beyond this nation’s borders.
Cut breastfeeding and also the nation bleeds money
Dr. Melissa Bartick of Harvard Medical School and Arnold Reinhold of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics found in a recent study that infants who were not fed colostrum-rich breast milk contributed mightily to soaring pediatric expenses. Their recent report in the journal Pediatrics indicates that “$3.6 billion could possibly be saved if nursing rates were increased to levels of the Healthy Individuals objectives”. And that data is from 2001; today’s numbers are even more frightening. Updated, the author’s study bears even more sobering numbers. ”$13 billion per year and prevent an excess of 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants” is the amount 90 percent of families could conserve if their infants were fed breast milk as the CDC Healthy People standard recommends.
Given that infant formula is costly (it is generally considered inferior to breast milk by medical experts) and looking at the ballooning of pediatric expenses, it’s eye-opening to determine just how much Americans who need money could save by continuing to breastfeed young children within reasonable parameters. There might be medical reasons why a mother cannot breastfeed, in which case formula is OK, even if it is too expensive for Americans who need cash. Needing pay day loans for infant formula powder is not a good place to be, financially.
Find more information on this subject
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
