From The Guardian.

Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4164022,00.html

Breastfeed for six months says WHO
Sarah Boseley, health editor
Guardian

Tuesday April 3, 2001


The World Health Organisation yesterday concluded a year of fraught
deliberations with a global recommendation that most women should
exclusively breastfeed their babies for six months.

The WHO's experts accept that some women who cannot breastfeed, some who do
not want to and others who for health reasons would be best not to, but they
say that in general, six months of exclusive breastfeeding is the healthiest
start to life for a baby and complementary feeding should not ideally start
any earlier.

Their conclusions fly in the face of a recent study published in the British
Medical Journal which found that adults who had been breastfed for more than
four months as a baby tended to be at a greater risk of dying from heart
disease. That study was one of the 3,000 the experts considered but not one
of just 17 thought sufficiently powerful to be accepted in evidence. Two
additional small trials were carried out for the review.

The issue has caused huge controversy within the WHO, where there has been a
north-south split, with countries such as Britain and the US favouring
shorter breastfeeding duration - only a small minority of women in the UK
breastfeed their babies to six months. The previous guidance recommended
four to six months. The change is likely to be ratified by the World Health
Assembly in May.

The report says there are mothers who would be best advised to stop feeding
exclusively at four months. If they are malnourished or anaemic themselves,
the baby may not get enough iron or micronutrients. But in developing
countries generally, exclusive breastfeeding for six months protects babies
against illness and death from gastrointestinal infections.

Patti Rundall of the pressure group Baby Milk Action said she was delighted
at the recommendation."For too long we have allowed the companies to
influence health policies, forgetting that they have only one objective
which is to sell more foods - in this case an extra $1bn worth every year."

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