The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding with breast milk for the first six months of an … See more

Under the influence of the hormones prolactin and oxytocin, women produce milk after childbirth to feed the baby. The initial milk produced is referred to as colostrum, … See more

Expressed breast milk can be stored. Lipase may cause thawed milk to taste soapy or rancid due to milk fat breakdown. It is still safe to use, and most babies will drink it. Scalding it will prevent rancid taste at the expense of antibodies. It should be stored with airtight … See more

Almost all medicines, or drugs, pass into breastmilk in small amounts by a concentration gradient. The amount of the drug bound by maternal plasma proteins, the size of the drug molecule, the pH and/or pKa of the drug, and the lipophilicity of … See more

Breastfeeding offers health benefits to mother and child even after infancy. These benefits include proper heat production and adipose tissue development, a 73% decreased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, increased intelligence, decreased … See more

Breast milk contains fats, proteins, carbohydrates (including lactose and human milk oligosaccharides), and a varying composition of minerals and vitamins. The composition changes over a single feed as well as over the period of lactation. Changes … See more

All mammalian species produce milk, but the composition of milk for each species varies widely and other kinds of milk are often very different from human breast milk. As a rule, the … See more