title: Breastfeeding: making the difference in the development, health and nutrition of term and preterm newborns.
abstract: Breastfeeding is the natural and safe way of feeding small infants, providing nutritional, immunological, psychological and economic recognized and unquestionable advantages. These qualities are especially important in premature infants, because of their vulnerability. Despite highly desirable, there is, in general, little success in breastfeeding preterm infants, especially in special care neonatal units. There are evidences that a high supportive hospital environment, with an interdisciplinary team, makes possible to these infants to be breastfed. In this article, the authors present an up-to-date review about the components of human milk and its unique characteristics, as well as describes aspects that make the breast milk particularly suitable for feeding the premature newborn.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Hospital das Clínicas, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria Beatriz Reinert
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: do Nascimento
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Issler
mesh_terms: D001942:Breast Feeding; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D007229:Infant Welfare; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000254:growth & development*; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D014886:Weaning