Breast milk contains ingredients specific to certain times of the day for our babies

"Breast milk contains ingredients which are specific to the child's nutritional needs at certain times of day or night, scientists have found.

So giving an infant breast milk expressed in the morning just before it goes to bed is likely to keep it awake.

Researcheres looked at three key ingredients of the milk which stimulate or relax the central nervous system, promoting restfulness and sleep, and observed how these varied throughout a 24-hour period.

Results showed that the highest concentrations were found in nightime samples taken between 8pm and 8am and that the composition of breast milk changes "quite markedly" during the day.

Cristina L. Sánchez, of the University of Extremadura, said: "This made us realise that milk induces sleep in babies."

She added: 'You wouldn't give anyone a coffee at night, and the same is true of milk it has day-specific ingredients that stimulate activity in the infant, and other night-time components that help the baby to rest.'

In order to provide the optimum nutrition babies should be given milk at the same time of day that it was expressed from the mother's breast.

'It is a mistake for the mother to express the milk at a certain time and then store it and feed it to the baby at a different time,' added Dr Sanchez whose research involving milk samples taken from 30 women was published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience.

Doctors breast say breast milk is the best food for babies during the first six months of life it not only protects against many illnesses such as colds, diarrhoea and sudden infant death syndrome, but can also prevent future diseases such as asthma, allergies and obesity, and promotes intellectual development.

Women who breastfeed lose the weight gained during pregnancy more quickly, and it also helps prevent against anaemia, high blood pressure and postnatal depression.

Osteoporosis and breast cancer are also less common among women who breastfeed their children."
From Telegraph.co.uk