Moms aren’t breastfeeding babies for as long as they should, according to the latest scorecard out Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The latest data, which are collected from surveys conducted in 2015, show that while breastfeeding is on the rise, with 83.2 percent of babies being breastfed after birth, women are stopping earlier than pediatricians recommend. They advise that women only breastfeed, and not introduce other foods or drinks, until six months after birth.
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Only 1 in 4 women do so, even though 57.6 are still breastfeeding to a certain extent at six months of age.
Still, breastfeeding is on its way up from five years earlier. The last report, published in 2014, showed that 79 percent of infants were breastfed in 2011. Forty-nine percent were breastfeeding to some extend at six months.
Breastfeeding is often referred to as the “first vaccine” because it protects against illness and disease. In babies, breastfeeding is associated with reducing the risk of asthma, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and infections. It also has benefits to moms; studies have shown that it reduces the risk of hypertension, and ovarian and breast cancer.
U.S. pediatricians recommend that women breastfeed at least 12 months, but they can start adding other foods after six months. Before that it is “generally unnecessary,” concludes the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The latest CDC study comes shortly after news reports suggested the Trump administration sided with formula companies to try to defeat a resolution at a United Nations health assembly calling on governments to “protect, promote, and support breast-feeding” and limit misleading formula marketing.
U.S. health officials deny the charge, but have said that “there are good and valid reasons, both medical and personal, why some mothers cannot breastfeed, or choose not to breastfeed exclusively.”
