Infant Nutrition

What and how you feed your baby is especially important during the first year. The average baby doubles birth weight within five months after birth, and weight triples by the first birthday. A smaller than average baby often grows more rapidly. Breast milk or iron-fortified formula is baby’s most important food in the first year, and should be the only food for the first four to six months of life. Health professionals recognize breastfeeding as the best choice for most infants.

The World Health Organization ranks food choices for babies as:

• breastfeeding
• the mother’s own milk expressed and given to her child through a bottle or syringe
• the milk of another human mother
• iron-fortified formula

There are, however, instances when a woman physically cannot breastfeed such as hormonal and glandular deficiency or other medical reasons.

There are a few infectious diseases that can be transmitted through human milk to a baby, including HIV and untreated tuberculosis. Mothers with HIV are advised not to breastfeed. Similarly, mothers with tuberculosis should not breastfeed until appropriate treatment has been started. Mothers with hepatitis B can breastfeed their infants if the infant receives the hepatitis B vaccine in the first few days after birth. There is no evidence that hepatitis C is transmitted by breastfeeding. Mothers with chronic hepatitis C are often advised that they can nurse their infants, but they should discuss this with their physician. Other types of infections need to be evaluated by the obstetrician and pediatrician, but nearly all will be found to be safe for breastfeeding.

Talk with your physician or midwife if you are wondering if a medical condition or a medication you are taking would affect your breastfed baby.