Breastfeeding your baby is by far the most natural; doctor recommended, ideal and best food for your baby. Breast milk is perfectly designed to meet every need of your baby and it has very unique properties that cannot be copied in a formula.

Breast milk contains all of the essential nutrients and antibodies that are perfectly matched to what your baby needs. Its composition is so perfect that your baby will experience less diarrhea, constipation and digestive upsets. With the antibodies that are in the breast milk your baby will be better prepared to fight off viruses and bacteria, while building his or her immune system.

Another advantage of breast milk is that it changes and adapts to your baby’s needs, while the act of breastfeeding itself helps form a close, emotional bond between mom and baby.

While it is always strongly recommended that mothers breastfeed their baby’s, there are many reasons that some mothers may be unable to or choose not to breastfeed. When breastfeeding in not an option due to a mothers illness, prescription medicines, heart or kidney disease, HIV/ AIDS or a number of other reasons, the three other doctor recommended alternatives are expressed milk from other, human milk from a donor or milk bank and the 4th alternative is infant formula.

When nursing at the mother's breast is not possible, the use of a nursing supplementer is a good option to try next with either expressed milk or milk from a donor or milk bank. As the final alternative, infant formula is designed to imitate the content and activities of human milk as much as scientifically possible. While there is no formula that can duplicate the perfection of breast milk, it is the only alternative when breast milk is not an option.

Formulas contains all the vitamins, minerals and iron your baby needs, but since there are so many brands and variations of formula, be sure and have your doctor tell you which one to use.