As health professionals emphasize theimportance of breast-feeding, US

health officials increasingly recognize breast-feeding as an important public health issue. The consensus among ma-jor medical authorities is that infants should receive no food or drink other than breast milk for the first 6 months of life, with continued breast-feeding for at least 1–2 years thereafter.1-3 However, only about 14 % of US babies are exclu-sively breast-fed for 6 months, and only about 20 % are breast-feeding at all at 1 year.4 Historically, health professionals, including pharmacists, have received limited education on management of various breast-feeding issues, including medication safety. When mothers are prescribed medications, they may be giv-en inappropriate advice to stop breast-feeding. The risks of not breast-feeding are con-siderable and well established, as summa-rized in a 2007 comprehensive analysis from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research.5 Compared with infants who are breast-fed according to recom-mendations, infants who are not breast-fed are more than 3 times more likely to be hospitalized for low-er respiratory tract infections, and have more than twice the risk of otitis media and diarrhea. Breast-feeding is es-pecially important for preterm infants, who depend on breast milk to decrease their risk of necrotizing enterocoli-tis and to complete their neurologic and ocular develop-ment. Not breast-feeding according to recommendations is also linked to increased risk of chronic diseases in off-spring, including a 37 % increased risk of asthma in young children, a 23–37 % increased risk of type 1 diabetes, an approximately 60 % increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and significant increases in the risks of acute leukemia and in adult obesity.5 Breast-feeding is also important for maternal health. The earlier a mother weans her baby, the higher her risk for breast cancer,5,6 ovarian cancer, 5,7 and type 2 diabetes.5,