The New York Times writer got the WHO recommendations from me.  They are on
the WHO website.  These recommendations have been in effect for ALL CHILDREN
everywhere in the world since 1979 -- so they aren't new.  Shame that
pediatric residents didn't know what they said.

http://www.who.int/nut/inf_recommend_eng.htm


World Health Organization's Infant-Feeding Recommendation1

The World Health Organization recommends that infants should be fed
exclusively on breast milk from birth to 4 to 6 months of age; that is, they
should be given no other liquids or solids than breast milk, not even water,
during this period. Given the worldwide variation in growth velocity, an age
range is an essential element of this feeding recommendation. Mean growth
Z-scores are indeed observed to begin falling at different points within
this 4-to-6-month range in breast-fed infants from different populations
worldwide. WHO and its partners are in the process of refining the
definition of "optimal" growth, as measured by accepted functional
indicators of infant health and well-being.

After this initial 4-to-6-month period of exclusive breast-feeding, children
should continue to be breast-fed for up to 2 years of age or beyond, while
receiving nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods. Starting
complementary feeding too early or too late are both undesirable. Ideally,
the decision when precisely to begin will be made by a mother, in
consultation with her health worker, based on her infant's specific growth
and development needs.

WHO's current infant-feeding recommendation was based initially on the
technical review and discussion undertaken in 1979 in connection with a
joint WHO/UNICEF meeting on infant and young child feeding. The meeting's
statement and recommendations were subsequently endorsed in their entirety
by the World Health Assembly. Important additional scientific evidence
including, most recently in 1995, from the WHO Expert Committee on the use
and interpretation of anthropometry, underscores the reliability of the
earlier review.

Although future scientific information and better understanding of the
variable impact of individual and population circumstances may well warrant
a change one day, present scientific evidence confirms the suitability of
WHO's long-standing infant-feeding recommendation.

* The World Health Organization's Infant-Feeding Recommendation is also
available online in French.

* A list of references is available on request from the Division of
Nutrition for Health and Development, WHO, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland.
Contact : [log in to unmask]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Weekly Epidemiological Record, No. 17, 1995,  pp. 119-120.


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