Breastfeeding and its Benefits Against Childhood Obesity,100% CORRECT

Breastfeeding and its Benefits Against Childhood Obesity David Inman ENG 102 Lesson 11 Writing Your Rough Draft: Breastfeeding and its Benefits Against Childhood Obesity Abstract Obesity is a topic that is well known to every American household, especially among those within the healthcare sector. This fact may be attributed to that the USA as well as other developed countries are noticing a fast rise on obesity, which in turn creates many health concerns even among children. It is calculated that approximately more than twenty percent of children between the ages two to five are or will be at risk to being overweight (, 2014). Stemming on numerous studies, obesity has been associated with the use of formula feeding throughout infancy. It has been proven that the cause is its high caloric and protein content that can be found in formula used to feed these babies. As a result, these infants grow faster and heavier than those who are breastfed. The need for further education to expectant parents have been identified, and it will prove to be beneficial in the initiative to decreased childhood obesity. Breastfeeding has been perceived as evidence of strategy for disease prevention. Amidst breastfeeding many benefits and/or its effects that have been well documented regarding it, it has been found recently, that it may prevent childhood obesity. In spite of the multiple benefits of breastfeeding, its rates continue to be low in many places around the world. Steps to increase the breastfeeding rates may be; education, parental support during pregnancy and while at work, and hospital initiative strategies. Breastfeeding Decreases the Chances of Childhood Obesity The advantages of breastfeeding are well known and it includes such as but not limited to; reduced risk for respiratory and ear infections, GI tract infections, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), type 2 diabetes, and dermatitis. Breastfeeding not only has benefits for the infant but for the mother as well, it speeds up the uterine tone, suppresses ovulation temporarily, and it even prevents bleeding after giving birth. In a study done by Kramer, breastfeeding can significantly decrease the risk of obesity between children. Unlike breastfed milk that has different effects on the baby’s hormones (like insulin which is the hormone that tells our bodies to store fat) and metabolism, formula fed babies are prone to be fat by their first year of age. Babies that are breastfed are also prone to try and like new foods since the mother’s milk has the different flavors of the foods eaten by their mothers. Recently about 300,000 candidates participated in a study where the results revealed that breastfeeding decreases the infant overweight and obesity (Bartok, C. J., & Ventura, A. K., 2009). The most concerning facet of obesity is that those suffering from it will be prone to having more health problems down the line that are related with obesity such as; hypertension, heart disease and diabetes. These specific diagnoses cause a high level cost to the patient and healthcare system because the high cost of health expenses and repeated hospital visits. This at the end results in more expenses to the patient and healthcare system such as the doctors and nurses who work on them when they are hospitalized not counting healthcare procedures and medicines that goes with each hospital visit. Repeated hospital visits by the sick patient or better known as “frequent flyer” often mean that the patient is in the hospital for the same reason multiple times; repeated visits many times in less than a month, and all of this end up costing healthcare a sky rocket amount of money. Healthcare continues educating these patients time and time again and the education more times than not it seems as if it falls in deaf ears and it looks as if these patients don’t comply with the healthcare and their doctors’ replies. On top of this the staff that comes in contact with these obese patients run the risk of injury because they care for them and due to the sheer size of many of these patients. Today’s research is pointing to a link between infants that are just breastfed and infants that are a smaller size and those who have been fed with formula. A good example are the statistics given by the CDC from that “approximates a 17% of the children and adolescents of ages 2 to 19 y/o suffer from obesity” (, 2014-2). These astounding numbers make the healthcare staff concerned for the future of these children and they are constantly looking for solutions to the problem. Problem Statement The truth is that obesity is a concerning growing problem for the United States as a developed country that should be on top of things like these. These health concerns that have been documented and these numbers regarding obesity’s effect on not only individuals but also on children, has one wondering if the infants ages from one to six months that are mainly bottle- fed with formula when compared to those who have been breastfed will have a bigger risk of being obese as they grow? The infant feeding history also includes wet nursing, the developmental change of feeding the infants with bottles and its newest way of formula feeding (Savino, F., et al, 2013). In the beginning of the 1980’s to the early 1990’s it was a normal practice for the new mothers to feed their babies with formula and even to bottle feed them. Today, the hospitals around the country have embraced breastfeeding and they even have a lactation nurse that encourages these new and established mothers to breastfeed as opposed to formula/bottle-feed their babies. Nurses are encouraged by hospitals now to offer the breast and offer a bottle as a last resort if the mother is sick taking medications that may affect the baby or if the mothers ask for a bottle since they cannot force them to breastfeed but they highly encouraged the mothers to do so. The reason behind this movement and focus from these hospitals come from the hundreds if not thousands of studies that have been done that proves that breastfeeding is better over formula for these infants. A study reported that “Breastfeeding has many known health advantages like; decreases diseases and health conditions for the baby as well as for the mother” (Ludlow et al., 2012, pg 291). Despite this movement towards breastfeeding, a report that was written by Stevens, Patrick and Pickler said that “formula-feeding remains a wide practice around the nation and it seems to be contributing to many children’s diseases and illnesses including but not limited to; atopy, diabetes and obesity among children” (Stevens, E., Patrick, T., & Pickler, R., 2009). Currently the opinion is that obesity has many factors but there is much evidence that suggests that early factors in life also have an influence in the pre-disposition of obesity (Gibson-Moore, 2011). A recent study indicated that there is a very strict link between small size babies and their weight and breastfeeding when they were compared to their counter parts that were formula fed (Savino, F., 2013). This evidence together with many other factors causes a reduction of risks for obesity the older the individual gets. Another research that studied 800 babies, said that infants that are fully breastfed, have a lower BMI than those who were given formula or were mixed fed (Rossen et al., 2011). Yet another study stated that when comparing “9 y/o kids who’ve been breastfed exclusively and non-exclusively among 13 to 25 weeks showed a 38 percent decreased of obesity risk, and the ones that had been breastfed for 26 weeks and more displayed a 51 percent decreased obesity risk” (Strong & Lee, 2014). In addition to these studies, 298 mothers that participated in another study, and had their babies fed for 6 months after birth solely on breast milk, and when compared to babies who’d been formula fed, it was concluded that breast milk contributed to the promotion of satiety (Brown & Lee, 2012). This satiety response in babies in terms leads to less food intake, since they’re satisfied and full which in terms leads to less amount of caloric intake and a reduction in obesity risk as well (Oddy, 2012, pg 7). It seems that the evidence indicates that the use of formula as opposed to the use of breast milk predisposes obesity from and during infancy. Sadly, this information has not been proven 100% yet but most of the evidence that have been studied and publicized points in the direction that formula fed infants grow to be obese and their counterpart do not. The hope is that with the education provided within this article, it reaches expectant parents and even their families and they can become more educated about breast milk as opposed to formula fed infants and the benefits that one has over the disadvantages of the latter one, as the saying goes “knowledge is power”. Solution In order to be able to start solving this awful problem that is the epidemic of obesity across America, the public must be educated and not only this but the knowledge they acquire must be measured and tested in order to see the effectiveness the education is providing. By incorporating the “Health Belief Model,” which states that behavior changes are attained by changes in the knowledge and beliefs” (Adams, Hall & Fulghum, 2014). The above mentioned model was developed around the 1950’s in nursing in order to analyze what was the causes or reasons of why was the people failing to participate in resources to recognize and avoid illnesses (Adams, Hall & Fulghum, 2014). The model truly believes that “a person cognitively value avoiding sickness or illness and anticipates that by taking a definitive health action will stop the cause of illness (Adams, Hall & Fulghum, 2014). In other words, the model is based in the believe that is an individual knows what is the cause of and illness that individual will avoid that cause and in terms it will avoid the illness as well by taking or making a corrective plan of action to stop the cause or causes that will bring about that illness. Therefore, by providing what are some of the causes or factors that causes obesity in an individual and presenting it in this article and making reference to some of the studies and providing statistics about the breastfeeding benefits as well, the writer of this article hopes that this will provide the individuals who reads it with the proper education and knowledge they need and that they in turn will elect to do what is best for their children and breastfeeding them thus leading to a decline in the number of infants that will be formula fed and leading to a decline in obesity as well. In order to measure how well they understood the information provided to them in this article and that they will know how to use that knowledge or what to do with it, a campaign can be set with participant hospitals, clinics and/or even their primary care physician or PCP are given a survey of questions and they will provide the answers. This survey can be done in a form of a pamphlet and it could be provided to the expectant parents for example in conjunction with participating hospitals, lactation clinics or their PCP’s and/or their OBGYN. Once all the surveys have been answered, the results will be presented by using statistics and numbers projections and once one knows if the public still doesn’t understand or they do but they do not know what to do about it, a new plan can be developed in order to target the problems found on the initial survey or evaluation. One thing that is very clear is that once there is a problem the public must be educated until the problem is solved or eradicated. It is the optimism and desire of the author of this article, that by educating the public, emphasizing those among the parents whom are expecting, on what the studies have found regarding the properties found on breastfeeding over obesity, that there will be the possibility that more mothers and/or expectant parents will then choose to breastfeed rather than formula/bottle feed their children which in terms will reduce or at least help battle this ceaseless epidemic that is obesity. Conclusion To conclude, with this current epidemic of obesity that has stroked the U.S. between both groups, adults and children, it is critical to help look for a solution on how to obtain less numbers than what we’re looking at today. Although there has been much talk and education regarding obesity, the topic that gets talked about the least is the connection between breastfeeding and its shielding properties like, reducing the risk to obesity as the child grows. Many studies have conveyed that breastfeeding contributes to self-regulation and at the same time it provides the option of lower protein milk (Oddy, 2012). This low protein self-regulatory element permits babies who are being breastfed the ability to grow slow and be a small size than the babies that are being formula fed. This is an urgent matter and we, the people of America must understand and remember that the proposal mentioned in this paper not only will yield its feedback but it will also let us know if the proposal is well structured and if it is appropriate for the target audience that we’ve mentioned earlier on this paper (expectant parents, pregnant women and the rest of the population that goes in hospitals, clinics etc…). It is vital for the researcher to know how? Where? The evaluation will be conducted as well as to know all the possible variables that may emerge with this article/project. It is also very important to share whatever new light or new information this article may shed in form of evidence based practice (EBP) with healthcare. In doing these, this writer also hopes that hospitals that hear about our findings can perhaps get to change some of their policies related to maternity and breastfeeding towards allowing their patients as well as their staff the opportunity to breastfeed instead of formula feeding their babies. Lastly, one must understand that no matter how much education and tools are provided to the public, it is them who ultimately have the last word, the right to choose what they want to do for them and their children, this is why we hope that by giving education, education and more education to these expectant parents they finally are able to see and realized which is more beneficial to their babies, breastmilk or formula. We hope that they can make the correct decision! Work Cited Adams, A., Hall, M., Fulghum, J. (2014). Utilizing the Health Belief Model to Assess Vaccine Acceptance of Patients on Hemodialysis. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 41 (4), 393-407. Retrieved on 04/10/2017 from: url= direct=true&db=rzh&AN=8&site=eds-live&scope=site Bartok, C. J., & Ventura, A. K. (2009). Mechanisms underlying the association between breastfeeding and obesity. International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, 4 (4), 196-204. Doi: 10.3109/. Retrieved on 04/08/2017 from: url= direct=true&db=a9h&AN=&site=ehost-live&scope=site Brown, A. & Lee, M. (2012). Breastfeeding during the first year promotes satiety responsiveness in children ages 18-24 months. Pediatric Obesity, 7(5), 382-390. Doi: 10.1111/j..2012.00071.x Retrieved on 04/09/2017 from: url= direct=true&db=ccm&AN=0&site=ehost-live&scope=site CDC.gov. (2014) Adult Obesity Facts. Retrieved on 04/09/2017 from: CDC.gov. (2014) Childhood Obesity Facts. Retrieved on 04/09/2017 from: Gibson-Moore, H. (2011). Infant feeding linked to long-term obesity. 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Acta Paediatrica, 102 (10). E455- E459. DOI: 10.1111/apa.12354. Retrieved on 04/10/2017 from: url= direct=true&db=a9h&AN=&site=ehost-live&scope=site Stevens, E., Patrick, T., & Pickler, R. (2009). A history of infant feeding. Journal of Perinatal Education, 18(2), 32-39. Retrieved on 11/21/2014 from: url= direct=true&db=ccm&AN=5&site=ehost-live&scope=site