Breast milk is also a rich source of fat, particularly unsaturated or vegetable-like fat, which meets 50 percent of the energy requirements of the infant during the first month of lactation.



Unlike formulas, human milk has less calcium but this is more efficiently absorbed. It contains enough cholesterol for babies which formulas don't have. Experts believe cholesterol in human milk is required for the proper development of the child's nervous system.

There are other important reasons why you should breastfeed your baby. Compared to infant formulas or cow's milk, breast milk is easy to digest and is suited for the child's kidneys. While it is low in protein, breast milk has a high percentage of whey and casein which is very difficult for formulas to match.

"The protein content and the level of most minerals, including calcium, phosphorus, sodium and potassium, in breast milk, is lower than that of cow's milk or infant formula. This is an advantage because less waste must be excreted. The newborn kidney is immature and cannot concentrate wastes. Therefore, the baby loses more water with cow's milk or formula than with breast milk. While most infants can tolerate this, infants with fever, diarrhea or other problems sometimes have difficulty maintaining an adequate level of body water. The additional need to excrete water with wastes when cow's milk is used places these babies at risk of dehydration," said Dr. Susan Baker of the Boston Children's Hospital in Parents' Guide to Nutrition.

"Human milk is a dilute milk, which means that the body's kidneys can easily handle its waste products. In fact no other fluids need be taken by an infant - not even water. Being a dilute milk with only 0.9 to 1 percent protein (as opposed to 3 to 4 percent in cow's milk) breast milk needs to be fed to the infant frequently," added Dr. Myron Winick in The Columbia Encyclopedia of Nutrition.

But even if the mother has to breastfeed more frequently, the baby is less likely to suffer from childhood obesity. This is a common problem in formula-fed babies since their mothers tend to over feed them.

"On the whole, physicians have observed, breast-fed babies tend to be less fat than babies fed on formula. It is believed that mothers are more likely to coax their babies to drink formula because it's visible in a bottle, rather than allowing the baby to determine how long to nurse or how much to take, as in breastfeeding," explained Sandy Jones and Werner Freitag in Consumer Reports' Guide to Baby Products.

Iron is low in breast milk but it is highly absorbable which makes iron deficiency rare in infants. In effect, breastfeeding helps prevent anemia and breastfed babies need not take iron supplements at all.

Human milk also contains the amino acid taurine that infants need for brain growth. Some formulas boast of being fortified with taurine, but Jones and Freitag said there appears to be a difference between babies who get taurine from breast milk and those who acquire it from formulas.

"Although formulas try to duplicate the ingredients of human milk, there are still many factors in human milk that are not completely understood," they added.

Will breastfeeding cause the breasts to sag? Find out in the third part of this series. To strengthen your body, take Immunitril - your first line of defense in maintaining a healthy immune system. For details, visit