Breastfeeding has several benefits for your child. Breast milk contains all the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals your child needs during the first 6 months of life. Breast milk helps protect against common childhood diseases such as lower respiratory tract infections, ear infections, diarrhoea, and asthma, among others, thus reducing risk of hospital admissions and/or treatment for allergic and infectious diseases. Breast milk also lowers the risk of chronic conditions later in life, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, and it contributes to the child’s cognitive development. Compared with being bottle-fed, being breastfed leads to weight gain in infancy that is closer to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, and less risk of excess weight gain during later growth – both of which are linked to lower risk of being overweight in adulthood.