Women’s bodies are amazing. Not only are they capable of growing a baby, they also produce the perfect food to nourish them.
The more we learn about breast milk and how babies thrive on it, the more amazed we become! Here are a few of our favorite little known facts:
1. When a woman is weaning her baby, her breast milk will be higher in sodium and therefore taste saltier.
2. Extreme exercise may increase the lactic acid in breast milk. It does not harm babies but they may not like the taste.
3. Women lower their risk of osteoporosis the more babies they have and the longer they breastfeed.
4. Half of the available iron is absorbed from breast milk. 7% of the available iron is absorbed from iron-fortified formula.
5. The amount of cholesterol in breast milk increases, as the baby gets older. Cholesterol plays an important role in nerve conduction in the brain.
6. There has never been a documented case of a baby being allergic to his own mother’s milk.
7. Some women’s breasts have a larger storage capacity for milk. Their babies, therefore, may be able to go longer between feeds.
8. Moms who have breastfed at least one other child will produce more milk than a mom who is breastfeeding her first baby.
9. A woman’s right breast usually produces more milk than her left.
10. Breast milk is 87% water. Even in the hottest climates, breastfed babies do not need extra water.
11. By 8 months old, a breastfed baby will have consumed about 30,000 kcal less than a bottle fed baby.
12. In the first 3 months, it is normal for a breastfed baby to have more body fat than a formula fed baby. From 3 to 12 months, however, the breastfed baby will be leaner.
13. After breastfeeding, it takes 48 minutes for half of the milk to leave baby’s stomach. It takes 78 minutes after a bottle of formula.
14. Your body burns an extra 500 calories per day when you are making breast milk. This is equivalent to cleaning the house for 2 hours or doing one hour of Zumba.
15. Most women experience their “milk coming in” at about 3 days postpartum. If you are an insulin dependent diabetic, it may take an extra 24 hours.
16. In the first 24 hours after birth, a breastfed baby takes in about 7 – 14 ml of breast milk. (That’s only 1 ½ to 3 teaspoons!)
Happy World Breastfeeding Week!
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