Mommy says that she is forever in my debt. And not just because I’m me. In all of her busy-ness, she says the only time she is still and at peace (besides sleep time) is when she’s nursing me. The funny thing is, I cherish that peacefulness, too.

As I get older, our nursing moments are getting less and less, yet still I reward her with a gentle touch of my hand, and a delicate positioning of my feet nestled under her shoulder, close to her.

But really, Mom’s rewarding me. We’ve all heard the benefits of breastfeeding, among them that breast milk is more digestible; I never have to wait for it to heat up; and it lowers my risk of asthma, protects against diarrheal infections and decreases my chances of contracting Hodgkin’s disease, osteoporosis and other words I’m not quite sure about but that sound scary. (See more reasons – 101 of ‘em – documented here.)

And, just a few weeks back, Mom read how researchers in Australia discovered that breastfeeding not only gives babies like me everything we need to meet our unique nutritional needs, but may also contain stem cells that could serve as key markers to guide our development into adulthood.

How cool is it that the benefits of Mommy’s milk may one day transcend beyond even these cherished nursing moments?!

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*For moms and dads:

• Breastfed babies cope better with stress
• Breastfeeding and weaning
  
• Breastfeeding benefits both mother and child