A Few Reasons Why Breastmilk Is
A Baby’s Best First Food

Today, more people are realizing the importance of making unprocessed and minimally processed foods the focus of their diet. Unlike infant formula, human breastmilk is a completely unprocessed food created by nature for the growth and development of babies. Breastmilk contains just the right amounts of important nutrients, which are easily digested, absorbed, and used by a baby’s body for optimal growth and development.

Here are a few examples of the nutrients in breastmilk and some of the reasons why each nutrient is important for a baby’s growth and development.

• Fat: Fat is a valuable source of energy that is essential for a baby’s growth. The omega-3 fatty acid DHA and the omega-6 fatty acid ARA are important for brain and nervous system development as well as retinal function.

• Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates, particularly lactose, are a primary source of energy for babies. Lactose is also important because it improves the absorption of vitamins and minerals, helps fight disease, and encourages the growth of healthy bacteria in the stomach.

• Proteins: Proteins help protect babies against infection. Other protein functions include building, maintaining, and repairing tissues.

• Water: Water regulates body temperature, transports nutrients throughout a baby’s body, and is essential for normal kidney function.

• Minerals: Breastmilk contains multiple essential minerals, including calcium, iron, sodium, and zinc. These minerals are necessary for a variety of functions, including bone and tooth development (calcium), formation of healthy blood cells (iron), regulating blood volume (sodium), building a healthy immune system (zinc), and many more.

• Vitamins: Among the many essential vitamins in breastmilk are vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin C, vitamin E, and folate. These vitamins perform vital functions, including fostering of proper growth and development (vitamin A), healthy nervous system function (thiamin), prevention of tissue breakdown (vitamin E), and the development of healthy blood cells (folate).

Mothers who breastfeed may be able to encourage their babies to eat healthy foods as they get older simply by eating healthy food themselves. Breastmilk includes flavors from the foods the mother eats, so a mother who eats a wide variety of healthy foods can influence her child’s tastes. Eating a variety of nutritious foods, including a colorful array of fruits and vegetables, can play a vital role in maintaining a healthy body weight over a lifetime. Unlike breastmilk, the taste of formula never varies, which means a formula-fed infant does not get exposed to the variety of tastes that a breastfed baby experiences.

When infants are bottle-fed, they may be encouraged to finish a bottle, which can override their self-regulation of energy intake. Breastfed infants, however, are better able to control their intake of breastmilk, which means that they can respond to internal cues for when they are hungry and when they are full. Learning to recognize hunger and satiety can help young children get a natural sense of when they are hungry and when they have consumed enough, which may help them avoid excess calorie consumption and weight gain as they reach school age and older.

Produced by the pancreas, the hormone insulin encourages the storage of fat. Formula-fed infants have higher concentrations of insulin and a longer insulin response than breastfed infants, which may lead to excess weight gain over time. The higher protein content of formula also may increase insulin levels. In addition, studies suggest that children who were breastfed have superior concentrations of leptin (a hormone thought to control hunger and levels of body fat) in their blood.

For the first 6 months of life, it is recommended that a baby be exclusively breastfed, receiving only breastmilk along with vitamin D supplementation. Parents of breastfed infants should consult their healthcare professional to discuss any other specific nutritional needs while breastfeeding. A commercially produced iron-fortified formula can nourish babies who are not breastfed.

At about 6 months of age, babies should be introduced to complementary foods (nutrient-dense foods that complement breastmilk) that are appropriate for their age and level of development. It is recommended that a mother breastfeed until her baby is at least 12 months old. How long a mother continues to breastfeed is an individual choice to be weighed based upon personal factors, but a mother can continue to breastfeed as long as she and her baby wish. Both babies and their mothers can benefit from breastfeeding beyond the first year.

At Childbirth Graphics, we specialize in creating unique breastfeeding education resources that explain why breastfeeding is best for babies and their mothers and how to achieve breastfeeding success. Find the materials and models featured here and many more teaching materials in our website’s section dedicated to breastfeeding eduction products.

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