U.S. could save $13 billion with more breastfeeding of babies

So a daycare SNAFU meant that I had my 7-month-old in the office this morning and early afternoon, and so I was especially struck by this article in the medical journal Pediatrics.

Researchers from Harvard University and the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics in Boston estimate that if 90 percent of new mothers exclusively breastfeed their babies for the first six months of life, the country would save $13 billion in health care costs and avoid more than 900 infant deaths.

The researchers did a cost analysis for all childhood diseases that the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that breastfeeding lowered the risk of developing. Those included ear infections, gastroenteritis, lower respiratory tract infections that resulted in hospital visits, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and childhood asthma.

That analysis showed that "if 90 percent of families could comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the U.S. would save $13 billion per year and avoid more than 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants ($10.5 billion and 741 deaths at 80 percent compliance)."

Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that 12.3 percent of mothers breast fed their children exclusively in 2005 and that 42.9 percent of infants got at least some mothers milk at six months. The researchers concluded that "investment in strategies to promote longer breastfeeding duration and exclusivity may be cost-effective."