Breastfeeding is the practice of a human mother feeding a baby (and sometimes a toddler or a young child) with milk produced from her mammary glands, usually directly from the nipples. Babies have a sucking instinct allowing them to extract the milk. While many mothers choose to breastfeed their child there are some who do not, either for personal or medical reasons. Breast milk has been shown to be very beneficial for a child, though, as with other bodily fluid transfers, some conditions can be passed from the mother to the infant. As an alternative the baby may be fed infant formula until the time that the child may move on to baby food.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breastfeeding

Today's selected anniversaries:

1383 The 1383-1385 Crisis in Portugal: A period of civil war and anarchy began when King Fernando died without a male heir to the Portuguese throne. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1383-1385_Crisis)

1844 Millerites and members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were greatly disappointed that Jesus Christ did not return as predicted by preacher William Miller. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerites)

1943 World War II: Kassel, Germany was severely bombed and burned for seven days in a firestorm, killing at least 10,000, rendering 150,000 homeless. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Kassel_in_World_War_II)

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced on television that Soviet nuclear weapons have been discovered in Cuba, and that he had ordered a naval "quarantine" of the island nation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis)

Wikiquote of the day:

"It doesn't matter if we were down 3-0. You've just got to keep the faith. The game is not over until the last out." ~ David Ortiz (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Ortiz)