Is Breast Feeding better than formula in all cases?

Is Breast Feeding better than formula in all cases?

Informal Logic: PHI 103

There has always been some debate one whether breast feeding or formula feeding is best for your infant. As a mother of three girls, I have done research many times trying to make the best decision for my child’s health for both now and in the future. It is sometimes hard to know which is best for our children when there are so many studies, articles, or opinions out there. There are studies from professors, providers, and even just bloggers who have an opinion nowadays of which is best for our children. So for this paper, we have been asked to write and come to a conclusion on the topic or question “Is breast feeding better than formula in all cases?”. I will be writing this paper trying to view the pros and cons and creating a defense argument both supporting breast feeding and supporting formula feeding. Once I have completed arguments for both views I will write my conclusion answering whether I do or do not agree that breast feeding is better than formula feeding in all cases.

An argument for Breast Feeding

To begin my research I googled the words “Is breast for formula feeding better?” and right away an article titled “Breast feeding vs Formula Feeding” popped up and started promoting breast feeding with a statement saying ‘The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends you breastfeed your infant exclusively for 6 months” (WebMD)(2005-2019). The article states many different benefits to breast feeding and how it is beneficial to the child. It also listed many different medical associates that backed up the data provided, showing an analytical argument and promoting the truth behind its statements and beliefs that breast feeding is best for your child. Below I have listed some of the benefits that had been given to support why breast feeding your infant is best.

Premise 1: Breast Feeding provides natural antibodies that will protect your child from illness, such as ear infections, asthma, and allergies.

Premise 2: Breast milk is naturally made for your baby and is usually easily digested.

Premise 3: Breast milk lowers the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

Premise 4: Breast milk may raise a child’s intelligence

Premise 5: Breast milk may later reduce the risk of your child becoming overweight, diabetics, having high cholesterol, and leukemia.

Conclusion: Breast milk is best because it has many benefits such as providing natural antibodies, easily to digest, lowers the risk of sudden infant death, may raise your child’s IQ, and might prevent acute healthcare problems later in life.

Defense Argument for Breast Feeding

I believe the premises listed above are good quality to support the conclusion. This article “Breast feeding vs Formula Feeding” has several pieces of supporting data and studies that help show that the rate of sudden infant death cases decreased with breast feeding versus formula-fed babies. It is supportive of the topic that breast milk is healthy and can be most beneficial to your infant. Breast feeding is promoted as the best choice for your child by many organizations such the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the World Health Organization (WHO). There are many supportive claims on why breastfeeding your child is most beneficial for not only the infant’s current health by giving them natural antibodies that will protect them from ear infections, asthma, or allergies, but also for later on in their life when they are adults and might start having acute health issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Breast milk also has been shown to decrease the amount of sudden infant death (SIDS) in babies’ vs those who are formula fed. So there are many benefits to breast feeding that cannot be denied.

Not only does breast feeding benefit the baby, but it has also been shown to help the mother as well. Studies show that mothers who breastfeed have a lower rate of postpartum depression. This is due to nursing triggering the release of oxytocin in the mother which promotes relaxation in the mother, thus making her less stressed and depressed. Studies have also shown that mothers who breastfeed are at a reduced risk for breast and ovarian cancer. With that, it appears that Breast Feeding is best!

Argument Supporting Formula Feeding

The next thing I google was “Why is formula better than Breastfeeding?” It pulled up an article “Is breast really best? Professor defies official advice to hail formula milk as just as good:” that was against breastfeeding and promoted formula feeding. As a mother of three girls who at a time was unable to feed my baby due to health complications, I can understand and reason why formula can be best when there is no other option. I think a lot of parents might just judge and jump to the conclusion that a mother who is formula feeding doesn’t want to take the time or put in the effort to breastfeed, however they are not taking in to account all the reasons why formula might be best and not all of them are due to health reasons. When reviewing my research I learned that there are many benefits to formula feeding and I have listed some of them below for you to review.

Premise 1: Formula feeding has been known to be linked to less fussy babies since they are able to eat when they are hungry and not wait for the body to produce more milk.

Premise 2: Formula feeding allows a woman to start working on losing the baby weight without having to worry about cutting too many calories from the child.

Premise 3: Formula is created to be filled with all the important vitamins, fats, and nutrients a child needs.

Premise 4: Formula feeding allows you to monitor how much your child is eating to ensure proper nutrients and intake.

Premise 5: Special formula is created to feed babies with food allergies (Soy and dairy free).

Premise 6: Feeding your baby formula allows others to bond with the baby

Premise 7: Formula feeding also doesn’t cause pain to the mother, which will limit stress and discomfort.

Premise 8: Formula feeding is easier for working moms

Conclusion: Formula feeding is best and has many benefits to a child such as; allowing a mother to monitor the child’s intake to ensure proper nutrients, easier for working moms to provide food for their child, created with special dietary needs, helps the mom stay healthy, and can cut down the odds of cancer.

Defense Argument for Formula Feeding

Above I have listed many great and strong points to help promote why formula feeding is best for a child. There are so many benefits that come from formula feeding. Such as formula being a safer way to monitor if your child is getting the proper amount of calories, which can be very important with a child who is failing to thrive. Also, a very important factor that formula can be created to feed babies who are suffering from certain allergies such as soy or dairy. Making it so the child can be less fussy or uncomfortable due to the side effects of the allergic reaction. Formula also is a great option for mothers who work and can’t always be home with their child and thus making them wait for you to come home or taking a risk of running low on milk while you are gone and the child not eating. Also formula feeding providers a great opportunity for other family members to be able to bond with the child during those frequent feedings and allowing the mother to have some much-needed rest or to focus on other household duties. Especially if there is more than one child in the home. So with that, I would argue that formula is the best option for your child.

Analysis of the reasoning

In conclusion, I would have to say there are many benefits to both breast feeding and formula feeding your infant. When reviewing the information given for breast feeding we learn a lot about the benefits. I have learned a lot in researching the benefits of breast feeding, starting with how breast feeding can provide natural antibodies to the child, which is beneficial in helping keep them healthy and fight against allergies, ear infections, and common illnesses. Breast feeding can help lower the sick of sudden infant death and also has been stated to have an impact on a child’s intelligence. It is also shown that breast milk can lower the risk of your child becoming overweight, diabetic, or having high blood cholesterol later on in life. So there seem to be many benefits to breast feeding.

However, I also learned that there are many benefits to formula feeding, such as studies showing that formula fed babies are less fussy due to them being able to eat when they are hungry or the formula is created to address certain food allergies to soy and dairy. Feeding your baby formula allows others to have time to bond with the child, thus creating a happier and more secure child. We also learned how formula feeding has benefits to the other for not allowing pain, allowing a mother to return to work sooner and help financially provide for the family, and also allows mothers to lose the baby weight faster due to them not having to worry about cutting calories and it affecting their breast milk.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I really had to take time to review all the pros and cons of my research to see if breast feeding is better than formula in all cases. There are many pros to breast feeding that we have learned throughout this research that shows that breast feeding can be very beneficial to a child. Providing it antibodies that can help fight off colds, infections, and Asthma. Helping lower the risk of SIDS, even the many benefits it can provide to the mother by reducing the risk of some cancers and lowering the rate of postpartum depression. I also learned about the many benefits formula can have for a child. Such as being specially made for children who have certain needs. Maybe in need of more calories or an infant with allergies to soy or dairy. Even giving other relatives more time to bond with the child while feeding or allowing the mother to return to work so that she can help financially provider for her family. Which for a single mom can be a major impact to home if she isn’t able to return back to work. However, when reviewing all of these pros, I also had to take in the cons. Having to try and view both sides in a non-biased way to really decide “Is Breast Feeding better than formula in all cases?”. With the question being “All Cases” I have come to the conclusion that no, breast feeding is not best in all cases and here is why. If we have a mother who is unable to produce enough milk for her child then breast feeding would not be best. If we chose to only breast feed that child than it would fail to thrive and ultimately that wouldn’t be best for the child’s health. There are many reasons someone might judge a mother for formula feeding her infant, thinking she just doesn’t want to take the time or its ‘easier’, however that isn’t always the case and I cannot say that breast feeding would be best for a mother whose breast milk isn’t able to provide everything the infant is needing. There are also instances that should be considered as in an infant born to an HIV positive mother, who has a high risk of giving HIV to her child if she breast feeds. So when reviewing all the facts, I cannot say that breast feeding is better than formula feeding in all cases. All being the keyword.

References:

Breastfeeding vs. Formula Feeding:

https://www.webmd.com/baby/breastfeeding-vs-formula-feeding#2https://www.webmd.com/baby/breastfeeding-vs-formula-feeding#2

Is breast really best? Professor defies official advice to hail formula milk as just as good:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1241051/Breast-milk-NOT-better-baby-formula-scientists-claim.html