Breastfeeding

What It Means

Breastfeeding is feeding a baby milk straight from the breast. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends breast milk alone for about the first 6 months. After that, it supports continuing to breastfeed alongside solid foods for as long as parent and child both want to, to 2 years or beyond.

How Parents Say It

• "She's nursing every two hours right now."
• "I'm going back to work next month, so I need a pump."
• "We're still breastfeeding at 14 months."

The Breakdown

By age, per the AAP and WIC

SupplyMilk supplyHow much breast milk a parent's body makes. It's driven by supply and demand: the more often milk is removed, the more the body makes. See more follows demand. WIC explains that each time you breastfeed or pump, your body gets the message to make more milk, and it adjusts over time to what your baby takes. That's one reason newborns feed so often.

Pumping at workPumping at workExpressing breast milk with a pump during the workday, protected for most U.S. employees by the PUMP Act's break time and private space rules for 1 year after birth. See more, per the U.S. Department of Labor. The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, signed December 29, 2022, widened the federal right to pump at work. Employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act get:

• Reasonable break time to pump each time they need to, for 1 year after the child's birth.
• A place to pump other than a bathroom, shielded from view and free from intrusion by coworkers and the public.
• Pay for that break time unless they are completely relieved from duty during it.

When to ask for help. If feeding hurts, or you're worried your baby isn't getting enough, call your pediatrician, a lactation consultant or your local WIC office.

Good to Know

The Department of Labor lists the PUMP Act's conditions. An employer with fewer than 50 employees doesn't have to follow the break time and space rules if it can show they would cause undue hardship, judged by the difficulty or expense compared with the size, finances, nature or structure of the business. Air carrier crewmembers, such as pilots and flight attendants, are exempt. Rail crew and motorcoach employees became covered on December 29, 2025, and some rail employers can still claim an exemption if they show significant expense or unsafe conditions. Before suing over a missing space to pump, an employee must tell the employer and allow 1010,000 stepsA popular daily step goal that began as the name of a 1960s Japanese pedometer; later studies find health benefits begin well below it. See more days to fix it; that notice isn't needed to file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division or to sue over break time. Since April 28, 2023, employers who break these rules can owe remedies such as lost wages.

Related Terms and Categories

• Milk supply

  How much breast milk a parent's body makes. It's driven by supply and demand: the more often milk is removed, the more the body makes.

• Cluster feeding

  When a baby wants several feeds close together over a few hours, often in the evening, instead of feeding at spaced-out times.

• Engorgement

  Breasts that become overfull, swollen, firm and sore because milk and fluid build up faster than they're removed, as when feeds are missed.

• Combination feeding

  Feeding a baby both breast milk and infant formula, in whatever mix suits the family, also called combo feeding or supplementing.

• Weaning

  Gradually moving a baby or toddler from breastfeeding to other foods, drinks and kinds of comfort, until nursing stops.

Baby and toddler