Mother's milk

Experts recommend breast-feeding babies for the first six months and supplementing with other foods up to two years and later.

Later, after she and her husband found out that breast-feeding was better than any formula, she made the switch.

"Parents always want to give their children the best," Yang says. "Since we know breast milk is better than formula, there is no reason not to breast-feed."

She feels fortunate that her hours at work are flexible, and she has a lot of time to stay home with her daughter. Her daughter is healthier and stronger than many other infants she knows, Yang says.

Currently, there are many breast-feeding support groups online, Yang says, which new mothers can go to for advice.

Han Tongyan, a pediatric healthcare specialist with the No 3 Hospital of Peking University, has noticed the changes in attitude toward breast-feeding.

Han became a pediatrician in 1998. At that time, infant formula was new to the Chinese, and many scrimped and saved to buy formula for their children, because they thought it was better than breast milk.

After safety scandals repeatedly hit both local and imported foreign sources of milk powder in 2008, many parents were forced to reconsider the situation. Some changed tack and got friends and relatives abroad to start a supply chain. Others used online resources to bring in the imported milk powder.

And they also became more aware that nothing is safer, or better for the child than mother's milk - a message that has been promoted through government campaigns and better support groups online, Han observes.

"Quite a few mothers I know quit their jobs so they can breast-feed their children better. This would have been unimaginable in the past," Han says.

Liu Qidi, 27, a mother to an 8-month-old boy in Wuhan, Hubei province, manages to breast-feed her boy against all odds.

During the first two months after a caesarian delivery, she did not produce enough breast milk, and had to resort to supplemented feeding. In spite of the difficulty, she resisted pressure from her mother-in-law, who tried to persuade her to use infant formula.