"Breast milk contains exactly the nutrients that the infant needs, helping the infant's development, with breastfed children performing better on intelligence tests than formula-fed children," Randa Jarudi Saadeh, a scientist at the Nutrition for Health and Development Department of the World Health Organisation, told IPS.
"Furthermore, breastfeeding helps mother and infant bond," she said.
Human milk is the ideal nourishment for infants' survival, growth and development. According to medical studies, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life stimulates babies' immune systems and protects them from life-threatening diseases such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infections -- two of the main causes of infant mortality in developing countries.
"Exclusive breastfeeding means giving the baby nothing other than breast milk -- not even water -- for the first six months of life," David Clark, a project officer at the nutrition section of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, told IPS.
"Newborns are extremely vulnerable as their immune systems are not yet functioning," he said. "Breast milk protects the baby by providing him or her with the mothers' antibodies. The bottom line is that exclusive breastfeeding saves lives."
What changes can you expect from your baby's feeding schedule?
As your baby's stomach grows, your baby feeding schedule will become normalize and time between feedings will increase. It's possible to night wean your child around nine months of age (some experts recommend one year, but it depends on how badly you need to sleep). Night weaning will be effective if your baby is developmentally ready for it: otherwise, you can do everything right and you'll still be waking up with a hungry child. But you can try feeding more frequently in the hours leading up to bedtime and through the day, putting in one last feeding just before you go to bed yourself, and increasing the quality of daytime feedings. Research has shown that babies will eat up to 25% more at a feeding if they aren't distracted by things going on around them. Nurse your baby in a quiet room where there's nothing else happening.
