How Breastfeeding Compare to Formula Feeding in Child Health Development

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Formula feeding is an alternative approach that parents use to feed their children, either because of medical conditions or due to unavoidable commitments. While it as a unique technique when it comes to saving time, breastfeeding remains to be a traditional technique that many experts suggest being more effective in promoting a child’s health and development. Doare et al. (2018) establish an in-depth discussion on the importance of Breastfeeding to the early life of a newborn. To avoid ambiguity, the article covers explicitly “the roles of breast milk microbiota in the establishment of the infant intestinal microbiota, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in shaping the microbiota, and extracellular vehicles (EVs) in the modulation of the host-microbe interactions.” To support the argument, the authors feature previous studies on the same field, including evidence from the World Health Organization. Therefore, the findings obtained in this study are valid because, other than providing a specific, narrow subject, the authors support their claims from scholarly articles and other academically accepted sources.

This study suggests that breastfeeding, compared to formula feeding, confers protection against gastrointestinal and respiratory infection in young children. It also reduces the risk of inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, atopy, obesity, and asthma. The authors also contend infants who are exclusively breastfed tend to have improved cognitive development than those who are formula-fed. Breast milk contains many bacteria. These microbes are passed from the mother to the infant during breastfeeding. Research indicates that at the age of one month, primarily breastfeeding infants share 28% stool microbe similarity to the microbes in the mother’s breast milk. These microbes play a vital role in reducing respiratory and gastrointestinal infections by 27 and 46 percent, respectively (Doare et al., 2018). Besides, the presence of Streptococcus salivarius and Staphylococcus epidermidis also suppresses the activity of Staphylococcus aureus, reducing clinical infections in infants between 6-12 months old (Doare et al., 2018). The implication is that a breastfed infant has a reduced severity and incidence in bacterial infection than formula-fed infants.

These results can help improve the health of infants by encouraging parents to breastfeed their infants frequently during the early development stages. For instance, the knowledge of human milk oligosaccharides can be utilized therapeutically in harnessing the benefits of antibiotics in patients with a history of inadequate breastfeeding.

Reference

Le Doare, K., Holder, B., Bassett, A., & Pannaraj, P. S. (2018). Mother’s milk: a purposeful contribution to the development of the infant microbiota and immunity. Frontiers in immunology, 9, 361.