Traditional logic suggests that if there were an easy, all-natural way to lower overall health care costs, such a recovery method should quickly be utilized. But the U.S. does not seem to be paying attention. You see, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that nursing for children over 6 months of age drops off dramatically, well below what their Nutritious Individuals standards recommend. Doctors cited in CDC research make a direct connection between low breastfeeding rates and higher pediatric costs because of the heightened prospect of disease in infants who are not breastfed.
Healthy People were nursed as children
”Meeting the national nursing initiation goal is a great accomplishment in women’s and children’s health, but we have more work ahead,” said Dr. William Dietz of the CDC to Medpage Today. As a mere 43 percent of babies are nevertheless breastfeeding at 6 months and 22 percent at one year – per the CDC study – The United States truly does have work to do.
Uncivil treatments for nursing
State-to-state breastfeeding rates were tracked by a 2007 CDC Nutritious People study. To give an idea of the degree of variance, 90 percent of infants in Utah were found to nursed regularly, when only 53 percent loved such bonding time with mom in Mississippi. The stance state governments take on breastfeeding plays an important role within the CDC study. A total of 21 states had no breastfeeding-friendly amenities for mothers and kids, and numerous others had hospitals that scored low in maternity care and breastfeeding instruction. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there has been improvement on the legislative level since the 2007 CDC study, however there remain states that do not have specific laws guarding 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 still exist as to how civilized Americans are as a culture. 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.
Be prepared to pay seriously if you turn away from nursing
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 weren’t fed colostrum-rich breast milk contributed mightily to soaring pediatric costs. Their report in the journal Pediatrics states that “$3.6 billion could possibly be saved if breastfeeding rates were increased to levels of the Nutritious People objectives”. That’s 2001 info. Updated, the author’s study bears even more sobering numbers. For kids six months and younger who are fed exclusively via breastfeeding, Bartick and Reinhold found that if there was at least 90 percent compliance (the Healthy People recommended minimum), the United States of America could now save “$13 billion per year and prevent an excess of 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants”.
Given that infant formula is costly (it is usually considered inferior to breast milk by medical experts) and looking at the ballooning of pediatric expenses, it is eye-opening to determine just how much Americans who need money could save by continuing to breastfeed young children within reasonable parameters. There may be medical reasons why a mother cannot breastfeed, in which case formula is OK, even if it is too costly for Americans who need cash. Needing payday loans for infant formula powder is not a good place to be, financially.
Further 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
