Riordan J M
School of Nursing, Wichita State University, Kansas, USA.
J Hum Lact. 1997 Jun;13(2):93-7. doi: 10.1177/089033449701300202.
Breastfeeding, a valuable natural resource, promotes health, helps prevent infant and childhood disease, and saves health care costs. Additional annual national health care costs, incurred for treatment of four medical conditions in infant who were not breastfed were estimated. Infant diarrhea in nonbreastfed infants costs $291.3 million; respiratory syncytial virus, $225 million; insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, from $9.6 to $124.8 million; and otitis media, $660 million. Thus, these four medical diagnoses alone create just over $1 billion of extra health care costs each year. Breastfeeding may also enhance intellectual development of children according to at least one medical research study. The potential societal benefits of more intelligent children is incalculable even though it cannot be directly measured in terms of dollars. Finally, it was calculated that an additional $2,665,715 in federal funds is needed yearly in order for WIC to provide infant formula to nonbreastfeeding mothers. For the average family, the cost of purchasing formula is twice the cost of supplemental food for the breastfeeding mother. Breastfeeding education and support should be an integral part of health care, especially under managed care which rewards the prevention of health problems and reduced use of health services.
母乳喂养是一项宝贵的自然资源，它能促进健康，有助于预防婴幼儿疾病，并节省医疗保健成本。研究估算了每年因治疗未进行母乳喂养婴儿的四种疾病而产生的额外国家医疗保健费用。未进行母乳喂养的婴儿患腹泻的治疗费用为2.913亿美元；呼吸道合胞病毒感染为2.25亿美元；胰岛素依赖型糖尿病为960万至1.248亿美元；中耳炎为6.6亿美元。因此，仅这四种医疗诊断每年就产生超过10亿美元的额外医疗保健费用。根据至少一项医学研究，母乳喂养还可能促进儿童的智力发育。尽管无法直接用金钱衡量，但更聪明的孩子给社会带来的潜在益处是无法估量的。最后，经计算，妇女、婴儿和儿童营养补充计划（WIC）每年需要额外266.5715万美元联邦资金，用于为非母乳喂养的母亲提供婴儿配方奶粉。对于普通家庭来说，购买配方奶粉的成本是母乳喂养母亲补充食品成本的两倍。母乳喂养教育和支持应成为医疗保健不可或缺的一部分，尤其是在鼓励预防健康问题和减少医疗服务使用的管理式医疗模式下。
