🥛 Breast milk

Breast (human) milk is the natural food of infants. WHO and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life — no other food or drink, not even water — followed by complementary foods while breastfeeding continues up to two years and beyond. The first milk after birth, colostrum, is especially rich in antibodies and immune substances.

Human milk differs markedly from cow’s milk in composition. It has about a third as much protein (around 1 g per 100 g) but more lactose — about 7% — so the two are comparable in calories. Caseins make up less than 40% of the protein (about 80% in cow’s milk), there is no β-lactoglobulin, and in the stomach it forms a soft, easily digested curd. An important component of human milk is oligosaccharides (about 1.3 g per 100 g), which are thought to support the growth of beneficial bifidobacteria in the baby.

The composition of breast milk is not constant: it changes from colostrum to mature milk, during a single feed and depending on the mother’s diet (for example, in water-soluble vitamins). For babies who cannot receive breast milk, industry produces infant formula, usually based on cow’s milk; donor milk banks also exist.