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The Whole Truth About Breastfeeding Print E-mail
Jan 07, 2005 at 06:07 PM
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The Whole Truth About Breastfeeding
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BA : Breastfed babies need not be burped as they take in less wind.
Me : Generally yes, but there are exceptions 

When Dominic was less than a month old, he was extremely fussy and tend to spit up a lot.  My husband and I did wonder if he was windy but the lactation consultant earlier told us that breastfed babies need not be burped as they take in less wind.  So we didn't burp Dominic.  Ok! Ok!  We were kind of stupid.  But for the benefits of new parents who might be just as naive as we were, breastfed babies can get pretty windy too, so please burp your babies.  In the end, when we brought Dominic to the paediatrician because of his spit up problem, we were told that Dominic was very windy.  Yes, even up until 3 months, he could still get very windy if we didn't give him wind drops before his feed.  Now we religiously burp him after every feed and my!  he does give very big and loud burps!

BA : Breastfeeding helps you save some money
Me : Not really

Breastfeeding is not cheap.  You have to invest in a breast pump, some nursing blouses, nursing bra, breast pads, breast cream, etc.  If you invest in all these things and breastfeed for only a couple of weeks or a month, then breastfeeding does not save you any money at all.  But if you are in it for the long haul, then yes, breastfeeding may help you save some money.

To give you a picture of how much money breastfeeding may save you :

A 1kg can of S26 costs about $21.  According to the recommendation on the can, a newborn up to 3 months old takes about 4oz/2 level scoops of formula per feed, 6 feeds a day.  That works out to be 16 scoops a day.  The weight per scoop is 8.4 grammes, which means each can of S26 contains 119 scoops, which will last you for 7.4 days.  Let's assume that to be 1 week.  This means that you will spend about $84 a month on formula for the first three months.  Not as much as you think, huh?  Especially if you consider what you already spent on breastfeeding accessories.

In case you are wondering, from 3-6 months, your baby will take about 15 scoops per day.  That will still work out to be about 1 can of formula a week.

Suppose you spent $300 on a good breast pump (some pumps costs nearly $1K!), $300 on nursing wear, and $50 on other knick knacks.  You will need to breastfeed for at least 7 months to recoup your investment.

By the way, nursing wear is not cheap.  And it's not worth saving on breast pumps because really cheap ones like manual pumps are generally not useful at all.

Now having done all the calculations, do note that I am only comparing basic, visible costs, assuming that everything else remains the same (e.g. health of the child).  Based on the fact that breastfed babies tend to fall sick less and are healthier, which in turn translates into lower medical costs, the cost of breastfeeding will then be lower than formula feeding.

If you are able to make do with less, e.g. learn to express milk by hand, sew your own nursing wear and breastpads, etc, you may be able ot save more.




Last Updated ( May 27, 2007 at 02:46 PM )
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