Breastfeeding And Child Health Essay

Running head: EFFECTS OF FEEDING METHODS ON CHILD HEALTH

Effects of Feeding Methods on Child Health
Whitney Culpepper
University of Central Florida

Effects of Feeding Methods on Child Health
Clinical Problem and PICO Statement In pediatric nursing, one consistently looks to the possible causes of childhood complications and illnesses. Child health can be affected by many factors including environment and genetics. However, one of the early suggested ideas, which can affect a child’s health directly after birth as well into childhood, is whether or not an infant was breastfed. The clinical problem being studied here is the effects of early feeding choices on child health. The PICO statement for this clinical problem is: In
The main benefits of breastfeeding include higher weights after birth, less respiration and gastrointestinal health problems as well as readmission to the hospital among infants, and decreased risk of becoming overweight in young childhood. In regards to the clinical problem presented by the PICO statement, this information shows that the positive effects of breastfeeding surpass those of using formula in infancy. The information provided by these studies is quite beneficial in understanding the benefits of breastfeeding. However, more research should be done on wider populations. Two out of the three studies I used consisted of data from other countries. More data needs to be researched in the United States, so it can be related and made more readily available to the people. Many mothers resort to formula feeding. However, if more data was found and made available to support the idea of breastfeeding, it is possible that more women may choose breastfeeding to benefit their infants’