When a mother has her new child, she faces a tough decision: breastfeed or formula feed? Perhaps a combination of both? Many mothers have reservations about breastfeeding because of the time commitment and concerns over producing enough milk, but also fear that formula feeding could impact their baby's health. Are these fears warranted, or is formula feeding a safe and effective alternative to the natural method?
Science has demonstrated that breastfeeding is biologically normal. This puts the burden of proof on formula-feeding—how safe is it? It can never reach the biological standard, so the question has to be asked, how far below the standard is it—and what unnecessary risks do we place on infants by feeding them a biologically inferior product? Even the formula companies assure us that their brand of formula is “most like breast milk”—this is the standard they are trying to attain. Why would they bother to continue to add whatever newly discovered breast milk ingredient to their already “improved” formula, if they, too, did not recognize that formula has a long way to go to meet the biological standard set by nature.
The studies are out there, and include hundreds of well-designed, well-respected studies published in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals from all disciplines. Whether the number of studies for any given condition is “scant” or huge, this does not negate the study results. And taken together they create a mosaic of protection that breastfeeding provides as the normal course of human development.
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