There are unique immune factors present in human milk that protect the infant and benefit society by reduced health care costs.

In reviewing office visits for lower respiratory tract illness, otitis media and gastrointestinal illness between never breastfed and exclusively breastfed infants for the first three months of life, there were 2,033 excess office visits, 212 excess days of hospitalization, and 609 excess prescriptions for those never breastfed. The extra cost is between $331 and $475 per never breastfed infant from a managed health care system.

Ball, T.M. & Wright, A.L. Health care costs of formula-feeding in the first year of life. Pediatrics 1999; 103 (4):
870-76.

Research has shown that breastfed children are less susceptible to dental caries than their bottle-fed counterparts and are less likely to need orthodontic treatments.

(Labbok, M.H., Hendershot, G.E.: Does breastfeeding protect against malocclusion? An analysis of the 1981 Child Health Supplement to the National Health Interview Survey. Am J Prev Med 1987;3 (4):227-232.)