[Nutritional recommendations for the newborn infant]

Abstract

The nutritional recommendations for newborn babies and infants change when there is an improvement on the technics and knowledge for evaluating requirements of each nutrient. In general, breast milk is enough for covering the nutritional requirements on healthy infants during the first six months of life. Therefore, the nutritional recommendations are focused to newborn babies and infants who do not receive exclusively breast milk or preterm infants whether they receive their own mother's milk or formula. The calculations are based on the assumption that mothers who breast fed their babies are healthy, well nourished and supplying daily a mean of 750 mL of breast milk during the period of lactation.