Infant formula, baby formula or just formula or baby milk, infant milk, false milk, or first milk, is a manufactured food designed and marketed for feeding to babies and infants under 12 months of age, usually prepared for bottle-feeding or cup-feeding from powder or liquid. The U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) defines infant formula as "a food which purports to be or is represented for special dietary use solely as a food for infants by reason of its simulation of human milk or its suitability as a complete or partial substitute for human milk".
Breast milk or mother's milk is milk produced by mammary glands, located in the breast of a human female. Breast milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborns, containing fat, protein, carbohydrates and variable minerals and vitamins. Breast milk also contains substances that help protect an infant against infection and inflammation, whilst also contributing to healthy development of the immune system and gut microbiome.
La Leche League International (LLLI) is a non-governmental, nonprofit organization that organizes advocacy, educational, and training related to breastfeeding. It is present in about 89 countries.
A supplemental nursing system (SNS), also known as a lactation aid, is a device that consists of a container and a capillary tube. It is used to provide additional nutrients to a baby whose mother has low milk supply. During breastfeeding, the end of the tube is placed alongside the mother's nipple so that both the tube and the breast are in the infant's mouth.
Lactational amenorrhea, also called postpartum infertility, is the temporary postnatal infertility that occurs when a woman is amenorrheic and fully breastfeeding.
Erotic lactation is sexual arousal by breastfeeding on a woman's breast. Depending on the context, the practice can also be referred to as adult suckling, adult nursing, and adult breastfeeding. Practitioners sometimes refer to themselves as being in an adult nursing relationship (ANR). Two persons in an exclusive relationship can be called a nursing couple.
A lactation room is a private space where a nursing mother can use a breast pump. The development is mostly confined to the United States, which is unique among developed countries in providing minimal maternity leave. Historian Jill Lepore argues that the "non-bathroom lactation room" and breast pumps generally are driven by corporate need for workers rather than mothers' wishes or babies' needs.
Lactivism is the doctrine or practice of vigorous action or involvement as a means of achieving a breastfeeding culture, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc. of breastfeeding. Supporters, referred to as "lactivists", seek to protest the violation of International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes by formula companies and industry.
Breastfeeding difficulties refers to problems that arise from breastfeeding, the feeding of an infant or young child with milk from a woman's breasts. Although babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk, and human breast milk is usually the best source of nourishment for human infants, there are circumstances under which breastfeeding can be problematic, or even in rare instances, contraindicated.
Breastfeeding, or nursing, is the process by which human breast milk is fed to a child. Breast milk may be from the breast, or may be expressed by hand or pumped and fed to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that breastfeeding begin within the first hour of a baby's life and continue as often and as much as the baby wants. Health organizations, including the WHO, recommend breastfeeding exclusively for six months. This means that no other foods or drinks, other than vitamin D, are typically given. WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, followed by continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary foods for up to 2 years and beyond. Of the 135 million babies born every year, only 42% are breastfed within the first hour of life, only 38% of mothers practice exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months and 58% of mothers continue breastfeeding up to the age of two years and beyond.
Amy Spangler is a breastfeeding expert and president of baby gooroo who has lectured extensively and published several books on breastfeeding. In addition to earning a bachelor's and master's degree in nursing, Spangler is a registered nurse and an internationally board certified lactation consultant, and she has held leadership positions with national and international organizations including President of the International Lactation Consultant Association. She has also served as an expert contributor to Breastfeeding.com and as a member of their professional advisory board.
Mary Paton is an occupational therapist and the founder of the Australian Breastfeeding Association.
The social attitudes to and legal status of breastfeeding in public vary widely in cultures around the world. In many countries, both in the Global South and in a number of Western countries, breastfeeding babies in open view of the general public is common and generally not regarded as an issue. In many parts of the world including Australia, some parts of the United States and Europe, along with some countries in Asia, women have an explicit legal right to nurse in public and in the workplace.
A human milk bank, breast milk bank or lactarium is a service that collects, screens, processes, and dispenses by prescription human milk donated by nursing mothers who are not biologically related to the recipient infant. The optimum nutrition for newborn infants is breastfeeding, if possible, for the first year. Human milk banks offer a solution to the mothers that cannot supply their own breast milk to their child, for reasons such as a baby being at risk of getting diseases and infections from a mother with certain diseases, or when a child is hospitalized at birth due to very low birth weight, and the mother cannot provide her own milk during the extended stay for reasons such as living far from the hospital.
Breastfeeding promotion refers to coordinated activities and policies to promote health among women, newborns and infants through breastfeeding.
Diana West is a leading lactation consultant and author specializing on the topic of breastfeeding.
Google Glass, or simply Glass, is a brand of smart glasses—an optical head-mounted display designed in the shape of a pair of glasses. It was developed by X with the mission of producing a ubiquitous computer. Google Glass displays information in a smartphone-like, hands-free format. Wearers communicate with the Internet via natural language voice commands.
A lactation consultant is a health professional who specializes in the clinical management of breastfeeding. The International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE) certifies lactation consultants who meet its criteria and have passed its exam.
Breastfeeding and medications is the description of the medications that can be used by a breastfeeding mother with no or few consequences and those medications which are recommended to be avoided. Some medications are excreted in breastmilk. Almost all medicines pass into breastmilk in small amounts. Some have no effect on the baby and can be used while breastfeeding. The National Institutes of Medicine (US) maintains a database containing information on drugs and other chemicals to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed. It includes information on the levels of such substances in breast milk and infant blood, and the possible adverse effects in the nursing infant. Suggested therapeutic alternatives to those drugs are provided, where appropriate. All data are derived from reliable sources. Some medications and herbal supplements can be of concern. This can be because the drug can accumulate in breastmilk or have effects on the infant and the mother. Those medications of concern are those medications used to treat substance and alcohol addiction. Other medications of concern are those that are used in smoking cessation. Pain medications and antidepressants need evaluation.
In breastfeeding women, low milk supply, also known as lactation insufficiency, insufficient milk syndrome, agalactia, agalactorrhea, hypogalactia or hypogalactorrhea, is the production of breast milk in daily volumes that do not fully meet the nutritional needs of her infant.
