I have been reading the debates about HIV transmission through breastmilk
with great interest. The recent study by Coutsoudis and colleagues showed
that the group of infants that received both breastfeeding and other
food/fluid were worst off in terms of virus transmission. The exclusively
breastfed and never breasfed infants were not significantly different from
each other in terms of virus transmission. Now my question is about the
feeding options available to poor mothers. One option that is currently
advocated/used in Africa is exclusive breastfeeding with abrupt weaning
before 7 months of age.  The abrupt weaning is to minimise the period of
exposure to mixed feeding, which appears to be the worst scenario in this
context. However, many of these babies get malnourished after abrupt
weaning. What experiences do you have with abrupt weaning and how can this
issue be tackled? Any useful comments are welcome!

Amal Omer-Salim
Nutritionist
Section for International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH)
Department of Women's and Children's Health,
Uppsala University,
Sweden


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