Breastfeeding - Strategies for Proposition 10 Implementation

"Breastfeeding is the most precious gift a mother can give her infant. When there is illness or malnutrition, it may be a lifesaving gift; when there is poverty, it may be the only gift." - Ruth Lawrence, M.D.

Purpose

To review the relationship between breastfeeding and early childhood health and development;
To provide effective strategies for increasing breastfeeding initiation and duration rates; and,
To provide guidelines for how to obtain 50/50 matching funds for breastfeeding efforts through the U.S.D.A.’s California Nutrition Network for Healthy, Active Families (Network).
Intent of Proposition 10

Proposition 10 is intended to establish comprehensive early childhood development and smoking prevention programs. The goal for early childhood development programs are to promote proper parenting, nurturing, and health care during the early years to provide the means for children to enter school: 1) in good health; 2) ready and able to learn; and 3) emotionally well developed.

Breastfeeding Saves Lives, Reduces Illness, and Fosters Optimum Child Development and Parenting

As we enter the new millennium, we must ensure the physical and emotional health of our children for the future. Once thought to be "no longer worth the bother," breastfeeding has been rediscovered by modern science as a means to save lives, reduce illness, foster optimum development and protect the environment. Policy makers are increasingly recognizing that breastfeeding promotion efforts can reduce health care costs that enhance maternal and infant well being. Human milk remains the single most important nutritional and bioactive substance available to the neonate. Breastfeeding also remains the first and best way to form a secure bond between mother and child, nurturing communication and emotional development. While many women in California initiate breastfeeding, too few women continue breastfeeding after the first few weeks.

Breastfeeding Saves Lives and Reduces Illness

Significantly lower rates of diarrhea, ear infections, lower respiratory illness, and childhood lymphomas occur among breastfed infants and children in the United States. Breastfeeding has also been reported to protect against necrotizing enterocolitis, bacteremia, meningitis, botulism, sudden infant death syndrome, urinary tract infection, early childhood caries, juvenile diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease. Health care costs to federal and state governments, and private healthcare systems because of NOT breastfeeding run into billions of dollars.

Breastfeeding Fosters Optimum Cognitive Development

Research has determined that a child’s first three years are the most critical in brain development. "Nutritional programming" is the concept that nutrition during these critical periods in early growth and development permanently effects the structure and function of organs and tissues.

For a child, optimal nutrition starts in utero and continues with breastfeeding, often called the "fourth trimester." Through thousands of years, human milk has been tailored to meet the challenging needs of the human infant and child; all substitute feeding options differ markedly from it.

The mixture of nutritional factors and growth hormones in human milk has been linked to enhanced cognitive development. In fact, a recent long term study of 1000 children found breastfed children had consistent and statistically significant increases in:

intelligence quotient (IQ) at age 8 and 9 years of age;
reading comprehension, mathematical ability, and scholastic ability assessed during the period from 10-13 years of age;
teacher ratings of reading and mathematics assessed at 8 and 12 years; and,
higher levels of attainment in "high school leaving examinations."