Infant nutrition, physical growth, breastfeeding, and general nutrition.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that infants who receive human milk develop differently from infants who receive infant formulas. Infants who receive human milk appear to have higher scores on tests of intelligence even after controlling for confounding variables. These differences have been demonstrated to persist in children for as long as 15 years of age. Infants who are fed human milk also grow at a different rate after 4 months of age. New growth charts should be employed that are specific for the breastfed infants so that these infants will not be characterized as "failing to thrive." Breastfed infants appear to be capable of adapting to the nutrient composition of their mother's milk by altering their own intake and although many mothers discontinue nursing because they perceive they have developed breast milk insufficiency, careful studies document that they are still producing adequate quantities of milk and that their infants are growing satisfactorily.