Baby Care Tips – A Smart Nutritional Start

The best nutritional start for your baby is breast milk. There are four reasons showing how breast milk can assist in raising a smart baby:

Increased nurturing

Studies have shown that formula-fed babies feed less than breastfed babies. The former are also more likely to feed using a schedule. Additionally, breastfed babies tend to be interacted with, held and touched more. The combination of mothering and milk gives babies a head start in learning. Eleven scientific studies have proved that breastfed babies are smarter than their formula-fed counterparts. The longer and frequently infants are breastfed, the higher the chance of being smart babies.

Increased touch

Infants that are breastfed are more likely to sleep the better part or all night in the same bed with their mother. This is a healthy parenting practice that substantially increases daily ‘touch time’. According to infant development specialists, presence or lack of touch has a big influence on a child’s intellectual and physical development. Mothers who breastfeed have a higher susceptibility of their child’s signals. A mother can only be successful at breastfeeding if they watch their child rather than the marks on the feeding bottle or the clock. Sensitivity of this level is carried over to other areas.

Increase in brain building nutrition

Formula lacks about 400 nutrients that are found in breast milk. A good example would be brain-building fats contained in mother’s milk. They provide the components used in building myelin. Myelin is the sheath around nerve fibers which assist messages to travel faster. Breast milk has the right amount of cholesterol (not too little, not too much, something like a medium cholesterol diet). Sufficient amounts of cholesterol promotes brain growth.

Baby formulas contain insufficient amounts of cholesterol. It is more of a decision that is based more on marketing than nutrition since it is common for people to avoid products with cholesterol. Consequently, formula-fed babies have to do without this brain builder. Other brain building nutrients are also present in breast milk. For instance, lactose which is the main carbohydrate in breast milk is the preferred sugar of the brain. Some formulas do not have lactose. Taurine is present in human milk and is a brain building protein. The nutrient was recently added to formulas. However, manufacturers of formulas are not sure of the right amounts of taurine to add to formula.

Increased responsiveness

One of the most healthy attitude builders is a parent’s responsiveness to the cues of their child. Because she has a hormonal head start, a breast feeding mother has a higher chance of responding in a more natural and nurturing way to her baby’s cries and needs. When the baby is crying, blood flow to the mother’s breast increase. This in turn triggers a biological urge to nurse the baby. This in turn affects the baby’s overall attitude and responsiveness. Infants who are fed on formula do not have such a link with their mothers. They therefore tend to be left out when it comes to responsiveness.