Assessing Breastfeeding Using Nuclear Science

Children who receive only human milk for the first 6 months of their lives are more resistant to disease and infection and less likely than children fed with formula milk to develop diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer in adulthood. With the IAEA's guidance, nuclear techniques are being used to test the effectiveness of breastfeeding promotion strategies. Researchers use non-radioactive stable isotopes of hydrogen (2H) in water (2H2O) to measure the movement of liquid from mother to child.