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Advantages of Breastfeeding

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Hello, everyone. I am a lecturer, Chen, Yi-Chun at School of Nutrition and Health Science in Taipei Medical University, I am going to talk about the importance of breastfeeding today. This is the weekly outline. The first part is the advantages of breastfeeding and then the composition of breast milk. Next, I will explain how to breastfeeding Finally, the diet principle for breastfeeding mothers. First, let’s look at the advantages of breastfeeding. According to suggestions from World Health Organization and Taiwan’s’ Ministry of Health and Welfare For feeding babies, one should use 100% breast milk for 6 months.
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After 6 months, we can start to add baby food for babies and continuously breast feed the babies until they’re approximately two years old, or a bit older. And why is this suggestion? First, there are many advantages about breastfeeding for babie. Breast milk is quite different from formula feeding because it consists of biological activity substance And the nutrients composition in the breast milk is much appropriate for babies. With the appropriate nutrients provided, babies can have better developed and growth. Formula feeding can cause babies a higher potential for obesity. On the other hand, breastfeeding can help babies to avoid allergy and also help babies to have better mental development. So why does breastfeeding help babies to have better mental development?
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Breastfeeding is an important way to build up parent-child relationship between the mother and the baby. With a close parent-child relationship it helps communication between the baby and the mother. The mother will have a better understanding of the baby’s needs from baby’s reaction as well as to reduce the baby’s crying and unsettling. This relationship of mom’s understanding of babies’ needs can contribute to the mental health of the baby. It will also help the child’s psychological development in the future. Breastfeeding is not only good for babies but also bring benefits for the mothers. During breastfeeding, it assists in mother’s uterine contraction and helps the recovery of the uterine. Also, breastfeeding will delay ovulation, and reduce the probability of being pregnant again.
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Therefore, it provides a longer time for the mother to get rest and for the body to recover. Breastfeeding has other advantages. It is convenient and the babies can be fed up easily. In fact, it is also the most economical way to feed the baby and helps save money. Breastfeeding can also reduce the probability of the mother’s rate of breast cancer and ovarian cancer Hence, breastfeeding could benefits for both mother and baby Other than that, not only it is good for mother and baby breastfeeding is also a good baby-feeding way for the environment. The production of baby formula consumes a lot of resources, such as cattle rearing, milk collection, and then go through further processing and modifying, and transportation, etc.
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In addition, empty bottles will generate garbage problem after using. Breastfeeding won’t generate problems towards environmental pollution and won’t consume lots of resources or energy Therefore, compared to formula feeding, breastfeeding is more eco-friendly.

What is the appropriate food when we were born? This week, Prof. Chen, Yi-Chun will give a detailed lecture on breastfeeding. The purpose is to understand the young mother’s situation or difficulties and to learn the importance of breastfeeding.

Even though we are not nurturing a baby, and usually young mothers will gain information from hospitals, there are some topics for us to think about. For example, How can we support the mother as a family member? What help can we offer? A young mother may have many concerned, how do we alleviate their worries? So find out what concerned mother has when nurturing a baby this week.

First, she will tell this week’s outline. We begin with the advantages of breastfeeding and then the composition of breast milk. The third part is how to breastfeed successfully for mothers. The final part is diet principles for breastfeeding mothers.

Then, she starts to explain the advantages of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding helps to boost the baby’s immune system and help the mother’s recovery. Also, breastfeeding is an intimate bonding time for the mother with the newborn. Last, eco-friendly is an additional benefit for breastfeeding.

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This content is taken from
Taipei Medical University online course,

Nutrition: Eating to Live Well

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This content is taken from Taipei Medical University online course
Nutrition: Eating to Live Well
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