Is breast best?

(Photo: my dog Dora and her first and only litter)

Does breastfeeding make smarter kids? Does breastfeeding cause less infection? Are breastfed children less often and less severe ill? No. Doesn’t breastfeeding have any benefits then? No, that’s right: breastfeeding does not have any benefits. Breastfeeding can not have benefits, because it is the norm for feeding, nurturing and protecting newborns and children in their first years of life. Biologically speaking, humans are mammalians. Most significant feature of mammalians is that the young are fed from the mammae (milk secreting glandular tissue clusters) of their mothers for a certain amount of time following birth. In the course of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution this has become a tried and proven  system, which has led to, amongst others, the great overall success of mammalian species. Part of this perfection is specialization: the lactation process and the composition of milk are fine tuned to the specific needs of the young of each single species. The duration of the lactation period, for example is linked to the eruption of teeth: many mammalians start eating other foods besides milk around the time the first teeth start erupting and drink their last drops of milk around the time the teeth start changing. The composition of milk is related to the way the young are cared for and the needs for developing systems that are crucial for the survival of the species. Species who leave their young in nests provide milk low in water, but very high in energy and protein; carriers on the other hand feed their young with milk high in water and milksugar, but very low in protein. Animals who need to run with the herd get milk with lots of protein and calcium, while species who survive because they’re smarter than others provide their young with nutrients that promote mind-development. Being breastfed by his own mother, or at least a mother from his own species, is essential for every young animal, inclusing the human. Breastfeeding is not an added bonus; non-breastfeeding is the deprivation of a basic need. Non-breastfeeding has disadvantages.