Breast milk is a perfect baby food because it has all the necessary food elements in just the right proportions necessary for healthy development.

Breast milk also offers:

• Immunological protection. The substance found in colostrums (the milky or yellowish fluid secreted by the mammary glands a few days before and after birth) as well as in mature milk, protects your baby against a number of infections. The colostrum also acts as a laxative, helping clear the baby’s body of mucus and meconium (a black stool which builds up during the last months of pregnancy). Colostrum also contains growth factors and hormones which can stimulate cell growth. It is therefore beneficial to your baby to breastfeed if even for only a short period of time.

• Recent studies indicate breastfed infants are less likely to fall victim to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) than those fed cow’s milk or formula.

• Breast milk is more easily digestible. Breastfed babies have fewer feeding problems and intestinal disorders.

• Brest milk is sterile and always fresh.

• Breastfed babies have fewer skin disorders and allergies.

• Breastfeeding is reported to have the potential to prevent obesity in children.

the close mother-baby attachment developed during breastfeeding extends far beyond infancy.

Click here to read 101 advantages of breastfeeding both for mom and baby.