In the absence of medical indications, it is recommended that newborns receive mother’s milk, which contains all the necessary nutrients and antibodies involved in the formation of their immunity. However, in some cases there is a need to switch to artificial feeding:
- Severe condition of the woman after childbirth. In this case, breastfeeding should be abandoned to be able to fully recover.
- A young mother has been prescribed medication in which natural feeding is contraindicated.
- The presence of infectious diseases in the laboring mother, is transmitted through breast milk.
- Lack of onset of lactation or too little milk produced. Lack of milk can be determined by checking weight measurement after breastfeeding.
- Other reasons, such as the temporary absence of the mother.
Advantages of artificial feeding
In any situation, you need to look for the pluses. Here let us look at the benefits of artificial feeding. Well firstly, it is possible to feed the baby not only the mother but also the father of the child or grandmothers. That is, a woman can safely go about their business, or even go to work, without worrying that the baby will be hungry. Feeding the baby from a bottle, mommy will always know how much he eats, and if he has health problems, she will be able to understand it by the amount of leftover formula.
Secondly, with formula feeding, you can always tell what your baby is allergic to because he only eats one formula. But with breastfeeding, it is very difficult to determine what the allergen is since mommy’s diet is quite large, and she will have to look through it completely to find the allergen.
Another advantage is that it reduces the number of meals. Since formula takes much longer to digest, the baby will ask for food much less often.
Disadvantages of artificial feeding
Of course, the pluses of artificial feeding are much fewer than the minuses. Babies who are fed formula are much more likely to get acute respiratory viral infections and allergies. These health issues occur because there are no special enzymes in the child’s body, which are present only in the mother’s milk. Also, feeding a baby from a bottle requires mommy to observe complete sterility. If she does not observe this rule, the baby can develop serious digestive disorders.
Those babies who are fed formula, more frequently suffer from colic and constantly regurgitate because of the poor quality of the pacifier, which leads to swallowing air during feeding. When you feed your baby formula, you have to change it regularly to find the most suitable one.
When traveling with a young child on artificial feeding, it is difficult to prepare a formula on the road. Yes, and a big fat disadvantage of the formula is the financial side. Feeding infant formula involves a significant expense. A good formula is not cheap, and the older your baby gets, the more formula he will need.
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