Parents of a new baby have a million things to do, but menu planning isn't usually a top priority. Until that baby is four to six months old, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even the infamous middle-of-the-night feeding, the menu items are either breast milk or infant formula. For any woman planning to have children, making the decision of how to feed their baby is a crucial one. It needs to be made long before that baby is conceived. The nutrition a baby receives in the first months of life is what gives it a good or bad start. For each mother that brings a child home from the hospital, a choice must be made that will affect the rest of the child's life. The question is often raised whether an infant raised on formula is as healthy and advantaged as an infant raised on mother's milk. There are some arguments, but on the whole experts agree on one thing. To really come to a conclusion, all the benefits, effects, and the harms of both infant formula and breast milk must be considered.

One of the biggest effects on the choice of feeding is the physical benefits and effects to the baby. Researchers say that, “Human milk contains at least 100 beneficial ingredients not found in formula"

Bottle fed babies do not have as many physical benefits as do the breast fed babies. In fact most studies have shown that bottle fed babies actually have more negative effects then benefits. In contrast to all of the physical benefits of breastfed babies, bottle fed babies actually face many risks. "Study after study now shows, that babies who are not breastfed have higher rates of death, meningitis, childhood leukemia and other cancers, otitis media, allergies, obesity, and developmental delays” (Stehlin). Researchers also state that; “babies given artificial feedings have much increased risks for SIDS, Insulin dependent diabetes, respiratory illness, and UTI's.” There have also been 22 significant recalls of infant formula between 1982 and 1994 because of glass fragments or bacteria present in the formula (Stehlin). The only way that mother's milk would be bad for the baby is if the mother has aids, herpes, hepatitis, beta streptococcus infections, drinks alcohol, smokes, or consumes other harmful substances.

(Stehlin). Doctors have long known that infants who are breast-fed catch fewer infections than those given formula. The reason they have found, is that "mothers milk actively helps newborn's avoid a variety of diseases in a variety of ways" (Newman). Research shows that breast-fed i

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