Nutrition during breastfeeding - impact on human milk composition.

Breastfeeding or breast milk feeding is a gold standard of feeding of newborns and infants. According to the guidelines of the World Health Organisation exclusive feeding with breast milk should be applied until the end of 6 months of age and should be continued during subsequent months with simultaneous introduction of supplementary food. Composition of breast milk varies and the composition of individual nutrients is affected by, among others, the diet of a breastfeeding mother. The paper aimed to present a literature review in order to assess a correlation between the mother's diet and breast milk composition. It has been observed that nutrients with the greatest correlation between their levels in human milk and their levels in the mother's diet include polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially DHA; however, no correlation was observed for mineral elements, mainly trace elements (zinc, chromium and iron).