❤️ Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is feeding a baby with its mother's milk. WHO calls breast milk the ideal food for infants: it is safe, clean and contains antibodies that protect against many common childhood illnesses. WHO considers colostrum, the first milk after birth, the perfect first food for a newborn.

WHO and UNICEF recommend putting the baby to the breast within the first hour after birth and giving only breast milk for the first 6 months — no other food or drink, not even water. Feeding is on demand: as often as the baby wants, day and night. From 6 months, safe complementary foods are introduced, and breastfeeding continues to 2 years and beyond. At 6–12 months breast milk can provide half or more of the energy a child needs, and at 12–24 months a third.

Early, exclusive and prolonged breastfeeding protects against infections, including pneumonia and diarrhoea. WHO estimates that if all children were given only breast milk for the first six months and then breastfed up to the age of two, almost 400,000 deaths of children under 5 could be prevented every year. Breastfed children are less likely to be overweight or develop diabetes, and mothers have a lower risk of breast and ovarian cancer; the NHS also adds a lower risk of osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.

Breastfeeding or formula? WHO calls breast milk the ideal food for infants: it is safe, clean and contains antibodies that protect against many common childhood illnesses, and colostrum, the first milk after birth, is the perfect first food. When breastfeeding is not possible, the NHS names first infant formula as the only suitable alternative up to 12 months, and the choice is best discussed with a doctor or midwife. To keep marketing from undermining breastfeeding, the World Health Assembly adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in 1981.

Breast milk is not sold, so there is nothing to find on a shelf. If breastfeeding is not possible, the pack to look for is labelled “first infant formula” or “infant formula”, the type the NHS names as suitable up to 12 months. Such products are kept in the baby aisle of a supermarket or in a pharmacy. Read the age range printed on the pack, and ask a doctor or midwife before choosing.

Yet worldwide only about 47% of infants under 6 months receive breast milk alone; WHO's target is at least 60% by 2030. To keep marketing from undermining breastfeeding, the World Health Assembly adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in 1981. If breastfeeding is not possible, the NHS calls first infant formula the only suitable alternative to breast milk up to 12 months; it is worth discussing the choice with a doctor or midwife.