by Kimberley Linstruth-Beckom

Created on: February 14, 2008

The question you will probably hear the most when pregnant is "So will you be breast or bottle feeding your baby?" It's one that most people give little thought to unless you happen to be the pregnant mom. As the pregnant mom, you want to give your baby the best start they can possibly have in life, so which is better, the breast or the bottle?

There is no question that breast feeding, when done right, far surpasses a formula because the benefits are numerous. The human breast milk itself contains 100 ingredients that can not be reproduced in commercial formulas. Breast milk is more digestible than formula. It is less likely that your child will be or become obese in life if they are breastfed as opposed to bottle fed. Breastfed babies are less likely to get ill in the first year of life, unlike their bottle fed counterparts. The risk of breast cancer is greatly reduce if you nurse your child. Breast feeding your baby helps speed up the shrinking of the uterus to pre-pregnancy size. Nursing can help to burn off fat, thus, allowing the woman to get to their pre-pregnancy size quicker as well.

The list can go on and on as far as the benefits, but breastfeeding must be done right in order to get these benefits. The mother must take time to eat a well-balanced meal three times a day and have at lease two snacks in between those meals to achieve quality breast milk. This can be hard whether you are a stay-at-home mom or you're not.

Let's face it, life today is hectic and the last thing that a mom thinks about is what kind of food is going into her body. Sometimes she's just lucky to have food going in when it's time to eat. But if you want your baby to reap the benefits of breast milk, you must eat good foods to accomplish this. A well-balanced diet includes fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and meats (minus garlic, onion, peanuts, strong spices, wheat, eggs, cucumber, cow's milk, citrus fruits, chocolate, cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli if your baby is food sensitive to these). This diet should also be as free from as much processed foods as possible, these include, boxed, canned, frozen, and restaurant foods. These processed foods are filled with chemicals and preservatives that are not good for you or your baby. There have been some studies done on these chemicals and dies in our foods and the outcome is shocking. One study showed that a die found in some foods could lead to ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Other studies of breast milk have found

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