Among other positive influences on a growing child, breastfeeding is increasingly being recognised as one of the factors in preventing childhood owereight development. The aim of this thesis was to determine the strength of association between the absence of human milk in children nutrition and the risk of developing higher body weight later in childhood, by overviewing relevant theoretical sources. In addition, the composition of breast milk was analyzed using available information and compared to that of the formulas, in order to determine main differences and try to connect them to the mentioned association. Finally, the overview was done over the development of human gastrointestinal tract and hormone system in postnatal period of life, with aims of finding additional possible reasons and mechanisms involved in the mentioned connection. We came to the conclusion that human breast milk, among may other positive effects on growth and development of a nursing child, plays an important role in overweight and obesity prevention in children. Its composition, which includes many hormones, enzymes, antimicrobial and immunomodulatory substances, prebiotics and probiotics, helps in regulating numbers of processes in human body that are directly responsible for maintaining healthy bodyweight and synthesizing the adipose tissue. Milk formulas don't posses mentioned bioactive substances and therefore lack the described positive effects
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