The process of a woman feeding an infant or young child with milk from her breasts is termed as breast feeding. The sucking reflexes of babies enable them suck and swallow milk.
It’s very important that a breast provides adequate milk to baby. It has been seen that a female breast in normal condition provides the optimal nutrition source for human infants, but the breast milk production can decline due to several health issues.
It has been experimentally proved that breast milk takes on the flavor of foods eaten by the mother, thus mothers need to eat healthy foods to keep good health of their babies. Smoking & drinking in mothers certainly affects the health of their Childs. So, breastfeeding mothers should not drink or smoke.
Breastfeeding is important and highly recommended for the good health of babies. It can be between the infant and its own mother, or another lactating female. There are breast milk substitutes available for mothers or families that do not prefer breastfeeding their children.
Some of the medically alternatives to breastfeeding include feeding the infant expressed breast milk from its own mother, from other lactating female, pastured donor human milk, or commercially-available infant formulas.
According to several studies, the use of commercial breast milk substitutes has been proven safe and effective as a nutrition source but inferior to breastfeeding. The donor breast milk handling processes have been suspected in the reduction of effectiveness in pasteurized donor human milk.
Hence, breastfeeding is highly recommended by health experts and agencies. Many governmental strategies and international initiatives have promoted breastfeeding as the best method of feeding a child in his or her first year and beyond, as does the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The current research and WHO/UNICEF "Baby Friendly" guidelines recommend only breastmilk until 6 months of age.
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Submitted by admin on Sat, 2007-04-21 10:24.