Exclusive breastfeeding and optimal will make the baby grow up healthy, strong, and intelligent. How not? Breastmilk contains 200 nutrients and provides immunity for the baby 20 times.
According to Dr. Utami Rusli, Sp.A. MBA IBCLC, child specialist at St. Carolus Jakarta, in the milk contained more than 200 substances that are very useful element for the growing baby. Substances that include egg whites, fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, growth hormones, various enzymes, antibodies, and others.
Unfortunately many people still do not understand very well that breastfeeding has an unparalleled value compared with formula or other food additives. This fact must be socialized in a more vigorous and continuous.
Excess milk first lies in the specialty. Mare’s milk is perfect for a baby horse, giraffe milk for the baby giraffe. The human baby will also be much better if given milk is best suited, namely milk, not milk animals.
Therefore, breastfeeding often we know called exclusive breastfeeding (exclusive breast feeding). Besides special because it comes from the same species, namely humans, breast milk can tailor the needs of infants with developmental age.
Milk that comes out during the birth until the day-to-4 or to-7 is called colostrum. Milk comes out on the 7th day until the 10th or 14th after the birth of so-called transitional milk. Milk that comes out after the 14th day of the birth of so-called mature milk. Nutrient composition of the three types of milk are each different.
“In fact there are differences in milk composition from minute to minute,” said Chairman of the Penitentiary Hospital Exclusive Breastfeeding St. Carolus Jakarta. For example, the fat content in milk when the baby is 3-5 days old was 1.85 g / dl. At 15-18 days of age the baby, it’s fat content to 3.06 g / dl.
30 Minutes After Birth
On the first day after birth, breast milk is very high nutrient content. Dr. Utami also always recommend that AT LEAST 30 minutes or half an hour after birth, infants should be breastfed. At that time the mother produces milk colostrum, milk jolong, or early milk that color is yellow and watery.
Colostrum is rich in nutrients and antibodies that serve to protect infants from infection. Colostrum will appear again 30 hours later. That means if the baby does not immediately get the first colostrum, she lost her highly nutritious substances from the mother.
Although the baby still had a chance to get it, the production of colostrum then only 30 milliliters a day. That means, only one milliliter of colostrum produced in one hour.
Of course this is very less. In fact, colostrum contains proteins, minerals, and vitamins A, E, and B12. Even colostrum contains less fat and sugar than milk produced on the following days.
Functionally, colostrum plays clean up the bile and mucus (meconium) in the baby’s digestive tract. This is very important because at the time after birth, babies are very susceptible to infection and a very new environment for him. Colostrum also will eliminate hunger in the newborn must be accompanied by the intake of sugar without milk or formula.
According to Dr. Utami, milk coming out in the first five minutes is called foremilk. Different composition and milk that came out later or hind. Foremilk is more dilute, containing high protein and low carbohydrate.
While hindmilk contains high carbohydrate, low protein, and fat content 4-5 times more than the foremilk. Hind this is a glut of babies.
The legacy of Agent Invulnerability
In addition to filling, colostrum contains immunoglobulins or immune. Type of protein in the body in charge of fighting the infection was not owned by the dairy animals. The content of this substance in colostrum hingga17 about 10 times more than in mature breast milk. That caused breastfed babies have immune optimally 15 to 20 times better.
Actually, the baby’s body has begun to make its own antibodies soon after birth. However, the new antibodies that will reach peak strength in infants aged nine to 12 months.
Therefore, breastfeeding is the most powerful antibody aid for early growth of the baby. Moreover because the milk turned out to contain many millions of white blood cells that are useful to kill the bad bacteria in the gut of infants.
Immune substances is truly amazing. Mothers immune to various diseases will be reduced to their infants through breast milk. If there’s a mother has antibodies against five diseases, the baby will also get the same heritage.
The effectiveness of the utilization of milk will be felt once when a breastfeeding baby is her own mother. If two people mixed up maternal and infant, breast milk given by the two will not match despite having no side effects in infants.
First Six Months
Given the mother’s milk is the most suitable food for babies, WHO recommends that for ages 0 to six months only breast-fed infants as the main menu and the only one. This suggestion is reasonable because the same type and has a substance other than immunity, breast milk can also educate the baby.
Taurine found in breast milk are very important in the formation of brain cells, nerve cells, and retina. Taurine is an amino acid that is used to aid the absorption of fats and fat-soluble vitamins. Taurine also helps regulate heartbeat, stabilizes cell membranes, and maintain the viability of brain cells.
In addition, taurine also contains long-chain fatty. This fat-forming precursor Arachidonic Acid (ARA) or linoleic acid (omega-6) and Docosa Hexaenoic Acid (DHA) or alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3). Both materials are known to be particularly useful in the developing nervous system of the brain and sense of sight. Dr. Utami confirmed that DHA and ARA are not present in cow’s milk or other animal milk.
Although in its infant formula (cow’s milk made with the addition of other materials) equipped with DHA and ARA is said, the baby’s digestive absorption will not be optimal, only about 20 percent. In fact, DHA and ARA found in breast milk can be absorbed by the baby’s gut as much as 100 percent with the help of the enzyme lipase.
Optimal absorption of DHA and ARA that make up the baby’s brain development. Intelligence will continue to increase, especially when up to 12 months of age she was still breast-fed, in addition to other supplementary food bemanfaat.
