Breastfeeding Will Save You Over $1000/year!

Formula, bottles, nipples, liners and misc. utensils. The costs add up quickly. The American Academy of Pediatrics, in their recent policy statement, report that the 1993 cost of purchasing infant formula was $885 for the first year alone. If you consider that a quite superior product is available at no cost, and considering the millions of infants being fed in the USA at any one time, this is, at the very least, a real waste of our GNP.

And our tax dollars. It was reported that the US government spends over $600 million a year to provide formula for its WIC (Women, Infants and Children) supplemental food program. WIC actually provides free infant formula to 37% of all infants born in the USA. Free to the mothers, but of course the formula companies are getting their $600 million. I wonder what we are spending on breastfeeding support under this program?

This doesn't touch on the increased health costs of the formula fed baby. A 1995 study by Kaiser-Permanente Health Maintenance in North Carolina found that the formula-fed baby averaged $1400 more annually in medical costs than their breastfed counterparts.

Here's a thought, if you take the approximately $2000 you would spend on formula and supplies during your child's infancy, put it into the child's bank account or trust fund, at 9% interest you'll have over $10,000 when your child turns 18! Your breastfeeding can help pay for college! Your breastfeeding can help pay for a month on Hawaii when they leave home! Whatever!

Learn about more benefits of breastfeeding at Disease Prevention, Your Child Will have Fewer Allergies and Breastfeeding is Ecological here at Breastfeeding.com.