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Financial considerations

Breastfeeding is less costly than alternatives, but the mother generally must eat more food than she would otherwise. In the US, the extra money spent on food (about US $ 17 each week) is usually about half as much money as the cost of infant formula. According to the CDC, breastfeeding mothers need an extra 450 to 500 calories per day compared to their pre-pregnancy caloric intake.

Breastfeeding reduces health care costs and the cost of caring for sick babies. Parents of breastfed babies are less likely to miss work and lose income because their babies are sick. Looking at three of the most common infant illnesses, lower respiratory tract illnesses, otitis media, and gastrointestinal illness, one study compared infants that had been exclusively breastfed for at least three months to those who had not. It found that in the first year of life there were 2033 excess office visits, 212 excess days of hospitalization, and 609 excess prescriptions for these three illnesses per 1000 never-breastfed infants compared with 1000 infants exclusively breastfed for at least 3 months. However, in a study of over 140,000 newborns in the first month of life, exclusively breastfed newborns had higher hospital readmission rates than those exclusively formula fed, and those exclusively breastfed also had more neonatal outpatient visits compared to those exclusively formula fed.