Longer Time Urged for Breast-Feeding
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The American Academy of Pediatrics said mothers should breast-feed for at least a year--six months longer than previously advised. The guidelines also urge employers to provide a place for women to nurse and recommend that insurance companies pay for services like lactation consultations. Breast-feeding provides individual health benefits as well as significant social and economic benefits to the nation, including reduced health-care costs, the academy wrote in its journal Pediatrics. Breast-feeding cuts the incidence of infant ear infections, allergies, diarrhea and bacterial meningitis.
