Boardash: Breastfeeding good for babies and moms

Friday, November 6, 2009

Breastfeeding good for babies and moms

Having trouble seeing this email? View the most recent issue or stories from previous issues.

	Today's Healthy Life Daily Video
	Effective Help For Mental Illness Play Now!

Try BookDaily today. Read for Free.

Parents
For You
Friday November 6, 2009

Breastfeeding good for babies and moms
Mom's flu shot when pregnant protects baby
Advice from Carolyn Hax
More News

Breastfeeding good for babies and moms

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (UPI) -- The American Dietetic Association has issued a position paper touting the benefits of breastfeeding for both U.S. infants and mothers.

The position paper, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, says exclusive breastfeeding provides optimal nutrition and health protection for the first six months of life, and breastfeeding with complementary foods from six months until at least 12 months of age is the ideal feeding pattern for infants.

The position paper, written by registered dietitians Delores C.S. James of the University of Florida and Rachelle Lessen of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia says the evidence-based review finds:

-- Human milk reduces the risk for a large number of acute and chronic illnesses. It reduces risk for sudden infant death syndrome.

-- Breastfeeding improves maternal health and well-being, and saves families time and money.

-- Breastfeeding boosts the immune system in babies, and reduces the risk for nonspecific gastroenteritis, severe lower respiratory tract infections and asthma.

-- Breast milk protects against allergies and intolerances, and promotes correct jaw and teeth development.

-- Breastfeeding is associated with higher intelligence quotient and school performance through adolescence.

-- Breastfeeding reduces the risk for chronic disease such as obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and childhood leukemia.

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Mom's flu shot when pregnant protects baby

PHILADELPHIA (UPI) -- Babies, born to women who had flu vaccine while pregnant, were hospitalized at a lower rate than infants of unvaccinated mothers, U.S. researchers found.

Dr. Marietta Vazquez, assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, said influenza is a major cause of serious respiratory disease in pregnant women and of hospitalization in infants.

Although the flu vaccine is recommended for all pregnant women and children, no vaccine is approved for infants less than six months of age. Preventive strategies for this age group include general infection control and vaccination of those coming in close contact with the infant.

During nine flu seasons from 2000-2009, Vazquez and colleagues identified and tracked more than 350 mothers and infants up to 12 months of age hospitalized at Yale-New Haven Hospital. They compared 157 infants hospitalized due to influenza to 230 influenza-negative infants matched by age and date of hospitalization.

"We found that vaccinating mothers during pregnancy was 80 percent effective in preventing hospitalization due to influenza in their infants during the first year of life and 89 percent effective in preventing hospitalization in infants under six months of age," Vazquez said in a statement.

The team presented the findings at the 47th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in Philadelphia.

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Advice from Carolyn Hax

Advice columnist Carolyn Hax is famous for her ability to get to the root of people's problems -- not just what they say, but who they are and what they're thinking.

The resulting advice is often ruthless, sometimes controversial, and always hilarious.

See for yourself what great advice Hax has to offer. Subscribe to ArcaMax's Carolyn Hax ezine, and receive her witty, helpful advice free by e-mail!

Subscribe to the Carolyn Hax ezine instantly.

Find out more before subscribing.

-- From the ArcaMax editors

Today's Reader Submitted Photos

Click an image above to see full size and read caption.

To see more of our subscriber photos visit our full Photo Gallery.

Enter your Parents pictures so you can show them off to other readers right here in this ezine and on the ArcaMax.com Web site. Click here to submit your photo.

Sincerely,
ArcaMax Editors