Breastfeeding helps to protect babies and young children against dangerous diseases. Bottle-feeding can lead to serious illness and death.

Supporting Information

Breastmilk is the baby's first 'immunization'. It helps to protect the baby against diarrhoea, coughs and colds, and other common illnesses. The protection is greatest when breastmilk alone is given to the baby for about the first six months.

Cow's milk, infant formulas, milk-powder solutions, maize gruel and other infant foods do not give babies any special protection against diarrhoea, coughs and colds, and other diseases.

Bottle-feeding can cause illnesses such as diarrhoea unless the water is boiled and the bottle and teats are sterilized in boiling water before each feed. The more often a child is ill, the more likely it is that he or she will become malnourished. That is why, in a community without clean drinking water, a bottle-fed baby is many times more likely to die of diarrhoea than a baby fed exclusively on breastmilk for about the first six months.

Mothers should be helped to breastfeed their babies. If for any reason a mother does not breastfeed, then she should be helped in other ways to give her baby good nutrition and protection against disease.

The best food for a baby who, for whatever reason, cannot be breastfed, is milk squeezed from the mother's breast. It should be given in a cup that has been very well cleaned. Cups are safer than bottles and teats because they are easier to keep clean.

The best food for any baby whose own mother's milk is not available is the breastmilk of another mother.

If non-human milk has to be used, it should be given from a clean cup rather than a bottle. Milk-powder solutions should be prepared using water that has been boiled and then cooled.

Cow's milk, infant formula, or milk-powder solutions can cause poor growth if too much water is added in order to make it go further.

Cow's milk and milk-powder solutions go bad if left to stand at room temperature for a few hours. Breastmilk can be stored for at least eight hours at room temperature without going bad.

In low-income communities, the cost of cow's milk or powdered milk, plus bottles, teats, and the fuel for boiling water, can be as much as 25-50% of a family's income.