Now there's two words you wouldn't expect in the same sentence! I'm going to do more entries on other unusual subject areas and their relationship to insurance. In fact, here's a challenge to the readers of the blogs on InsuranceGuide101; leave a comment with your pick for a topic that couldn't possibly be related to insurance (keep it clean please) and I'll write a post that shows how it does relate!

Back to the matter at hand. Breastfeeding protects the health and well-being of your child right from the moment you start. A June 2006 article in the New York Times indicates breastfed babies have as much as 50 percent to 95 percent fewer infections than other babies! If you've ever worried over a sick infant, this alone should inspire you to want your baby fed this way.

However, breastfeeding also helps to confer additional protection to your child's health in the future. As such, it relates to your child's future insurability for both life and health insurance! In fact, a breastfed child has a lower risk of a whole host of serious health problems including:

• allergies
• obesity
• childhood leukemia
• type 1 diabetes

While allergies won't get you denied health or insurance coverage, the other conditions on this list certainly can. Obesity alone can mean much increased premiums for life insurance. You can face higher premiums for health insurance too, as well as difficulties in getting insurance coverage for needed obesity treatment. Obesity as a medical condition can even mean denial of coverage for life insurance in some cases. Childhood leukemia may result in a health insurance exclusion that would affect your child for a significant length of time, as well as make life insurance much more difficult to obtain. Type 1 diabetes is an extremely serious and life-long chronic disease that will mean significant challenges in insurance coverage.

Think it stops here? Think again. There are another set of significant benefits for the breastfeeding mom, that also protect the mother's insurability:

• helps mom to lose baby weight and avoid obesity
  
• reduces post-partum stress
• reduces post-partum bleeding and related complications
• reduces the lifetime risk of many types of cancer, including ovarian
• reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes
  
• appears to protect against osteoporosis

In other words, breastfeeding is all about health for both mother and child. Better health means less expensive health insurance in most cases. It also means less expensive life insurance. It means you increase your chances of getting the best coverage at the best price.

So, give your child the gift of health and protect their pocket books at the same time. Breastfeed.

Need more information on breastfeeding or health? Check out TheBreastSite and its blog.

Monique L. Attinger