Motherlove CEO Silencia Cox On Breastfeeding Benefits After AAP's Recent Update - Exclusive
Most parents have heard that breast is best when it comes to feeding baby. While the experience of caring for an infant is different for everyone, and not everyone can or wants to breastfeed, the American Academy of Pediatrics recently made a major change to its guidelines around breastfeeding that underscores how many benefits the practice offers both mom and child. In the update, the first in a decade, the AAP recommends breastfeeding for the first two years of a child's life if possible, in combination with feeding solid foods at the right time for a child's growth and development.
Health Digest talked exclusively to Motherlove CEO Silencia Cox to discuss this change and in honor of National Breastfeeding Awareness Month and National Breastfeeding Week this week. One of the topics that Cox elaborated on was the benefits of breastfeeding, of which there are seemingly an endless supply.
First, it is so important to note that as she pointed out, no one should feel pressured to breastfeed if they can't or don't want to. "However, parents who do want to breastfeed should be given better support and should be provided with evidence-based information about the benefits of breastfeeding," Cox said.
Breast milk is a mysteriously magical food
Motherlove CEO Silencia Cox explained to Health Digest why the AAP's first change to its guidelines in 10 years is so significant. "The AAP still recommends that you breastfeed your baby exclusively for 6 months. They've lengthened their recommendation about continued breastfeeding from one year to two years, if desired. According to the AAP, the reason for this change is due to the continued benefits of breastfeeding past 12 months."
As she elaborates, breast milk is essentially the perfect food for your baby in every way, providing not only the up-to-the minute nutritional balance for them, but changing with their needs every step of the way.
Meanwhile, breast milk contains live cells, antibodies and hormones, that as Cox told us, "work to protect and heal your baby from illness and disease." She added, "Many studies show breastfeeding decreases the risk of asthma, obesity, SIDS, diabetes, ear infections, respiratory infections, gastrointestinal infections, childhood leukemia."
However, breastfeeding is not only beneficial as a food for baby.
Breastfeeding offers benefits to mom as well
In addition to meeting a baby's nutritional needs and potentially preventing a host of diseases later in life, as Motherlove CEO Silencia Cox explains, "Breastfeeding moms have been known to use breast milk for everyday, practical purposes as well."
"Have you ever been told to 'just throw a little breast milk on it' when faced with something like sore nipples or diaper rash?" she posited. "It turns out that there's a lot of truth in that statement. Breast milk really does work to heal many of the minor day-to-day health issues moms and babies encounter, and research supports this. Other benefits include helping heal cuts and wounds, clearing up blocked tear ducts in newborns, treating eczema in little ones, and healing a baby's umbilical cord stump after birth."
Importantly, breastfeeding has also been shown to benefit the mother, with the Centers for Disease Control noting the practice may help lower the risk of developing certain kinds of cancer, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
Visit the Motherlove website to learn more about our breastfeeding products that have been helping millions of moms for decades.