Most health care professionals recommend that infants be breast fed.
Breast milk is very nutritious and psychologically it is good for mother and child.
Now a study from the University of Kentucky presents another reason, it helps make the baby smarter. Seven thousand children between ages 6 months to 16 years were included in the analysis and the increased intellect, although not marked, was present in all age groups. These results remained the same regardless of the mother's education and socioeconomic class, and the babies birth weight. A proposed reason for the increase in intellect in breast fed babies versus formula fed was that breast milk contains omega long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids which are not present in formula milk. Another study from the University of Minnesota showed that breast feeding reduces the risk of childhood acute leukemia especially if the baby was breast fed for more than 6 months.