Many women who plan to breastfeed wonder about the best way to prepare. A common myth is that women must “toughen” their nipples, although there is no evidence that this is necessary or helpful. If the nipples are flat or inverted before delivery, it is occasionally difficult for an infant to latch-on. However, there is [...]

Most national and international groups recommend exclusive breastfeeding without the use of infant formula or other foods or liquids for the first six months, and partial breastfeeding for at least 12 months. Despite the overwhelming evidence in favor of breastfeeding, in the United States, only about 74 percent of women breastfeed immediately after birth and [...]

Human milk is widely recognized as the optimal source of nutrition for all newborn infants. Breast milk promotes development of the infant’s immune system and meets the nutritional needs of a full-term infant until approximately six months of age, when complementary foods and fluids are usually added to the diet. In the coming weeks we will [...]

Immunizing individual children also helps to protect the health of our community, especially those people who are not immunized. People who are not immunized include those who are too young to be vaccinated (e.g., children less than a year old cannot receive the measles vaccine but can be infected by the measles virus), those who [...]

It’s true that Newborn Babies are immune to many diseases because they have antibodies they got from their mothers. However, the duration of this immunity may last only a month to about a year. Further, young children do not have maternal immunity against some vaccine-preventable diseases, such as whooping cough. If a child is not [...]