Breastfeeding or Bottle Feeding
Feeding is an important bonding moment between a mother and a baby. Nutrition during the first year of your baby’s life is very important, milk is high in calories which helps to fuel your baby’s rapid growth and development. Deciding to feed your baby breastmilk or formula is a personal matter. Although breast milk is considered the best nutritional choice for your baby, but sometimes breastfeeding may not always be the option due to low breast milk supply, a medical condition or any other reason that may be out of the mom’s control.
Importance of Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is healthier and more beneficial for you and your baby, and one of the most effective ways to ensure the baby’s health and survival. Breastmilk is safe, clean and contains antibodies which help protect against many common childhood illnesses. It contains essential fatty acids called DHAs, which have been linked to brain function and higher IQ and also provide all the energy and nutrients that the infant’s needs. Although most babies settle into a feeding pattern eventually, they vary in how often they want to feed and how much they want to drink. Breastfed babies do need to eat more often than babies who take formula, because breast milk digests faster than formula and they are less likely to be sick, that may mean they make fewer trips to the doctor’s office, so fewer co-pays and less money are paid for prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines. Breastmilk is the ideal food for infants, but it may not be possible for all women.
Importance of Bottle Feeding
Bottle-feeding can mean either feeding your baby breast milk from a bottle, or using formula in a bottle. Baby formula is a great alternative breastfeeding to make sure your baby is fed and gets all their daily nutrients. Commercially prepared infant formula is a nutritious alternative to breast milk, and even contain some vitamins and nutrients that breastfed babies need to get from supplements. Some infants are unable to digest certain components of human milk, and therefore need to be bottle-fed an infant formula. There are also some reasons why most mums choose formula fed than breastfeed.
Convenience
This allows the mother to share the feeding duties with her partner to get involved in feeding process. The father, siblings and other family members can feed the baby anytime with a baby bottle and spend some time with the newborn baby.
Flexibility
This offer more freedom and increased flexibility for the mother and opportunity of other family members to bond with the baby during feeding time, and also make easier for them to know how much the baby is getting. Formula feeding make it easier to feed the baby in public.
Diet
The mother who chooses to bottle feed her baby doesn’t have to worry about changing or adding specific fruits and veggies on her diet just to meet the needs of her baby. She can eat and drink anything she likes.
Insufficient Breastmilk
Most mums worry that her baby will remain hungry if their breast milk supply is insufficient. So, they resort to bottle feeding to ensures that her baby gets all the milk in order to grow and develop.