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Reviews the various ways of feeding infants from birth to one year since what an infant eats at this stage in life is crucial to his/her future health. Critically discusses the various practices of feeding infants, which are breast‐feeding, artificial feeding, mixed feeding, and weaning. Reports on the investigations done in various countries of Europe, North America, some countries in South America, Africa and Asia. Suggests the proper ways of infant feeding based on the investigations and recommendations from WHO and UNESCO; then concludes that breast‐feeding is the best method of infant feeding and the best time to start weaning infants is between five and six months old.

The purpose of this review is to summarize the available literature on the effect of vitamin and mineral supplements, especially in doses exceeding recommended daily allowances.

A comprehensive search and analysis of original, peer‐reviewed literature on supplementation studies was conducted.

High doses of vitamins and minerals can be harmful instead of beneficial. Supplementation of vitamins and minerals, in general, may be most beneficial, and perhaps only beneficial, to individuals with a nutrient‐deficient diet. Consumers thus need to be weary of the safety and efficacy of their supplements. While vitamins and minerals are vital to life, the optimal doses of each required nutrient are currently not known.

Lack of standardization between studies makes it difficult to compare the results from different studies.Practical implications – Based on this review, a recommendation can be made to avoid high dose supplements and obtain vitamins from foods to the greatest extent possible.Originality/value – This review is unique in its comprehensive nature that allows the identification of common underlying problems with the supplementation of different groups of vitamins.

Breast milk is considered superior over other modified infant formulae owing to its numerous intrinsic characteristics and pre‐eminence. However, breast milk is nutritionally inadequate for low‐birth weight infants and infants fed exclusively on breast milk are at the risk of getting infected with HIV‐1 and transmitted drugs in breast milk due to sterility of mothers at the time of pregnancy. In absence or insufficient secretion, breast milk stored at human milk banks or various developed infant formulae may be a practical substitute. Microbiological safety of breast milk from human milk banks is governed by the conditions of its collection and storage, whereas method of reconstitution and sterilization of equipments influences the quality of infant formulae. Under this circumstances various specially developed cultured milk products can be recommended for feeding both normal and sick infants. This paper enlightens the recent research innovations in the field of cultured milk products for feeding infants in absence of breast milk.

In absence of breast milk, humanized mammalian milk may not be adequate as it could not confer considerable protection to the infants as those extended by breast milk. With the objective of enhancing the nutritional and therapeutic attributes of humanized mammalian milk considerable efforts have been exercised to mimic infant formulae to the health‐promoting benefits of breast milk with the inclusion of probiotics, oligosaccharides and proteins. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

In the present article an endeavour has been made to enlighten innovations in supplementary foods for infants in absence of human milk. Suitability of special humanized milk such as hypoallergenic formulae, neural formulae and gastrointestinal integrity formulae as a supplementary food for infants in absence of human milk is also justified.

Characterization of components of human milk and identification of nutritional needs of infants have resulted in formulation of special humanized milk such as hypoallergenic formulae for allergenic infants, neural formulae for normal physiological functions of infants and gastrointestinal integrity formulae for maintaining microbial balance in the intestine. Supplementation of infant formulae with sialic acid, long chain poly unsaturated fatty acids such as decosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid, probiotic cultures such as Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus GG and Lactobacillus casei and prebiotic such as galacto‐OS and fructo‐OS are recommended.

The paper emphasises that, with the characterization of components of human milk and identification of nutritional needs of infants, modification of infant formulae should be constantly carried.