Attachment Parenting

Breastfeeding Benefits Dad Too!

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“Many fathers fear that they won’t be able to bond with the baby without feeding bottles. This is very far from the truth. Bonding doesn’t occur through the ingestion of food through plastic. Bonding occurs through a physically, loving relationship. There are many ways for a father to connect to his new infant. Bringing the baby to the mother to breastfeed is a great way to demonstrate to the baby that the father can, in fact, meet his baby’s needs. His baby will be well aware of the fact that daddy is the transportation to the food.” lactivist.com

Author: Carrie Lauth

As a new or prospective father, you are probably somewhat familiar with the benefits of breastfeeding for mom and baby, but did you ever stop to think about what is in it for you? Aren’t you going to miss out by not getting to share in the joy of feeding your baby? Let’s see how Dads benefit when a Mom chooses to breastfeed their child.

Cost Savings
This is a big one for a lot of dads! Whether you are the sole income provider or not, adding a new member to the family can often be a source of worry. It may help to know that that one year of breastfeeding can save over $1,000 vs the cost of artificial infant food. That’s just for bottles and formula, and doesn’t include the extra Doctor visits and prescriptions that happen when baby is formula fed.

More Sleep
Let’s face it. You don’t have the equipment to handle the job of night feedings. While some Moms choose to pump and let Dad offer a bottle at night, for many Moms, snuggling up with baby at night to nurse is the norm. In a lot of families, this means Dad can head off to work with a full night’s rest.

Benefits of Being Breastfed

• Breast milk is the most complete form of nutrition for infants. A mother’s milk has just the right amount of fat, sugar, water, and protein that is needed for a baby’s growth and development. Most babies find it easier to digest breast milk than they do formula.

• As a result, breastfed infants grow exactly the way they should. They tend to gain less unnecessary weight and to be leaner. This may result in being less overweight later in life.

• Premature babies do better when breastfed compared to premature babies who are fed formula.

• Breastfed babies score slightly higher on IQ tests, especially babies who were born pre-maturely. 4women.gov

Proud Papa
When you see how your baby’s cheeks and thighs are filling out on Mom’s milk alone, you might tend to view mom as some kind of Dairy Queen. What an amazing capacity she has to help your child grow and thrive! Many Dads become huge proponents of breastfeeding when they see how healthy their babies are.

Health and IQ Benefits
Dads are especially impressed by the fact that breastfed babies gain an average of 8 IQ points over their formula fed counterparts. Breastfeeding also means that Mom is less likely to get ovarian or breast cancer. The natural extended birth control that many nursing Moms experience is also a plus in Dads book.

Focus on Mom
Since Mom is breastfeeding, you can find other ways to bond with your baby and be a support to Mom. Some ideas: take your baby for walks, burp and bathe her, sing lullabies at night, practice infant massage and of course read to your baby. You can also be in charge of helping Mom stay fed and hydrated in the early weeks while she recovers from the birth. And since Mom is handling the “input”, Dad can be in charge of “output”. Dads are far more likely to be willing to change diapers since a breastfed baby’s poop doesn’t have an unpleasant odor (until solid food is added!).

Seven great ideas to help do your part to make breastfeeding a success:

1. Support Natural Childbirth
2. Support rooming in if mom delivers in a hospital
3. Help out with the older kids
4. Take care of nighttime diapers since mom does the feeding
5. Be 100% supportive of nursing in public
6. Don’t question breastfeeding purchases
7. Brag about breastfeeding to anyone who will listen

Taken from Keep Abreast

Buy the Book: The Milk Memos

About the author: Motherhood is too short to wear an ugly nursing bra! Find one that even Dad will love at: http://www.SexyNursingBra.com

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