The benefits of breast-feeding are well established. Breast milk contains the right balance of nutrients for your baby, and the antibodies in breast milk boost your baby's immune system. But in some cases, exclusive breast-feeding isn't possible or practical.Breast-feeding for at least four months helps boost your baby's immune system. Breast-feeding throughout the first year is ideal.

Most breast-feeding mothers may wean their babies between ages 9 and 15 months.Milk has biologic specificity—meaning that every species of animal who breastfeeds their babies makes a milk that is unique for the young of that species.The amounts of nutrients change to match your baby's rapidly changing needs.

The germs in the baby's environment, to which the mother has been exposed, cause the mother to produce antibodies to that germ, which are passed on to the breastfeeding infant. An infant may be breast fed by its own mother or by another lactating female. Breast milk may also be expressed and fed to a baby through a bottle and pasteurized donor human milk may be used.

Breast milk substitutes are available for mothers or families who cannot or prefer not to breastfeed their children.The majority of illnesses and medications are not dangerous to a breastfeeding infant. There are conflicting studies about the relative value of breast milk substitutes. The use of commercial infant formulas has been acknowledged as inferior to breastfeeding for both full term and premature infants .

Guidelines for successful breastfeeding

•Breastfeeding can be a wonderful experience both for you and your baby. breast milk is by far the best food for your newborn baby; no commercial-made baby formula as well as any other food or drink can match breast milk;

•Breast milk is the perfect source of nutrition for infants. Breast milk contains appropriate amounts of carbohydrate , protein , and fat . It also provides digestive enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and hormones that all infants require.

• breastfeeding (as compared to artificial feeding) protects against common infections, especially diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases as

well as urinary tract and ear infections;

• breastfeed as often as baby wants, do not restrict frequency of feeding according to a timetable;

• let the baby come off the breast spontaneously, do not take baby off the breast before the baby is finished;

• try to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months and then continue for as long and often as possible (exclusively means giving your baby only breastmilk for 6 months – no other fluids, including water, tea or glucose!);

• anaemia is not a contra-indication to breastfeeding and even if you are anaemic you should continue to breast feed;

• weight loss is not a contra-indication to breastfeeding and even if you have lost weight you should continue to breast feed;

• you should not stop breastfeeding even if you are smoking or occasionally consume alcohol – your milk is still the best food for your baby.

•Babies can digest breast milk easily. A diet of breast milk produces loose bowel movements that a baby can easily pass. Constipation is rare in breast-fed infants.

•Your baby is less likely to have skin problems and asthma than babies who are fed formula and reduces the chance of your child becoming overweight later

•Women who breast-feed are less likely to get breast cancer or ovarian cancer and may be less likely to suffer broken hips in older life.

Infants who were fully breastfed for 6 months or more seem to have higher mental development when compared with infants who were never breastfed.

Previous research published in the Lancet has highlighted lower risk of HIV transmission in exclusive breastfeeding in HIV positive mothers (4 percent risk), compared to mixed feeding (10-40 percent risk). This research is of a particular importance in developing countries rampant with HIV, such as Africa, where infant formula is not widely available as alternative.

With the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, however, and the recognition that HIV-infected mothers can transmit HIV to their infants through breastfeeding, specific recommendations apply to infants born to HIV-infected mothers.

Where breastfeeding is common and prolonged, transmission through breastfeeding may account for up to half of HIV infections in infants

and young children.Research into prevention of breastfeeding transmission is concerned particularly with the effect of antiretroviral prophylaxis on either the uninfected infant or the infected mother during breastfeeding. Early findings show a low rate of transmission through breastfeeding

in the first three months in infants receiving prophylaxis with either lamivudine or nevirapine.

It is not clear whether, or to what extent, the protection that breastfeeding normally confers against common childhood infections applies to breastfeeding of HIV-infected infants by HIV-infected mothers. Recent research in sub-Saharan Africa indicates that mortality in the first 12–18 months is similar in HIVinfected breastfed and non-breastfed infants. Nor is it clear whether, or in what ways, overall morbidity or mortality up to two years of age is related to different infant feeding practices.

But most recently;South African researchers report. suggested that by breast-feeding only, HIV-positive mothers reduce the risk of postnatal HIV infection in their babies,

The study, published in the issue of The Lancet, also found that early introduction of animal milk and solid foods while breast-feeding increases the risk that infants will be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The findings suggest that current World Health Organization, UNICEF and UNAIDS infant-feeding guidelines need to be revised, said researchers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

They found that infants of HIV-positive mothers who received formula milk in addition to breast milk were nearly twice as likely to be infected by HIV as infants who received breast milk only. The addition of solid foods increased the risk of HIV infection in the infants 11-fold.

The death rate at three months for babies who were fed animal milk or solid foods was more than double that of babies who received breast milk only, the researchers found.

"The key finding of our study is the definite demonstration that early introduction of solid foods and animal milks increases HIV transmission risks compared with exclusive breast-feeding from birth. These data, together with evidence that exclusive breast-feeding can be supported in HIV-infected women (and uninfected women), warrant revision of the present UNICEF, WHO, and UNICEF infant feeding guidelines that were revised in 2000," the study authors wrote.