Newborn babies and young infants need specific amounts of energy, protein, carbohydrates, fat, electrolytes, minerals, and vitamins. These are all provided in the right balance by your breast milk, with the added benefit of important antibodies to help your baby fight infections during the first few months of life. Human breast milk is designed for human babies, and all substitute feeding preparations contain fewer ingredients than have been identified in human milk. Of the over 200 identified elements of human milk that interact in this complex fluid, about 30 can be artificially produced in infant formula.
Should you have difficulties feeding your baby at the breast, despite assistance by a breastfeeding specialist, you can purchase or rent hospital-approved breast pumps to express your breast milk and give it to your baby by bottle.
If you cannot breastfeed or provide breast milk for your baby, commercially manufactured formula milks are available for feeding babies.