This is from Medscape, (URL is
http://pediatrics.medscape.com/reuters/prof/2000/09/09.28/20000927publ004.ht
ml
Cutting & pasting for folks not on Medscape.
Anna Swisher
Austin, TX
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Last Updated: 2000-09-27 18:59:48 EDT (Reuters Health)[PUBL] - PAHO Supports
Infant Nutrition Proposal That May Affect International Trade
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By Chris Gearon
WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) Sept 28 - In a resolution aimed at preventing
malnutrition and lowering infant mortality rates in developing nations,
health ministers of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on Tuesday
supported a resolution that encourages mothers to exclusively breast-feed
their infants until 6 months of age.
The controversial proposal debated by the 42nd Directing Council of PAHO now
advances to the World Health Organization (WHO) executive board, which meets
next January. If adopted by WHO, the recommendation could have repercussions
for international trade, according to PAHO.
"The reason the issue has become so polarized is commercial," Dr. Chessa
Lutter, director of food and nutrition for the organization, told Reuters
Health.
"The recommendation influences, or has the potential to influence, infant
feeding policy and programs, maternity legislation, and the monitoring of
the Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, and Codex Alimentarius,
which governs the content and labeling of cereal-based infant foods and is
especially significant with respect to international trade," a PAHO
background paper states.
Research demonstrates that women in developing nations who exclusively
breast-feed see beneficial health results in their children and in
themselves, Dr. Lutter told Reuters Health. However, data are not as
clearcut that mothers in developed nations who exclusively breast-feed for 6
months get the same benefits as mothers and children in poorer nations, she
added. Better and safer food preparation methods in developed nations reduce
the risks of illnesses, for example.
A case-control study in Brazil showed that infants younger than 2-months who
were not exclusively breast-fed were 23 times more likely to die than
infants who were breastfed, according to the PAHO background paper. A study
in the Philippines of nearly 10,000 infants showed that during their initial
6 months of life, babies who did not breast-feed or who ceased
breast-feeding had a 10-fold increase in diarrheal mortality.
While the US government has not endorsed a exclusive breast-feeding time
frame, the Department of Health and Human Services expects to release a
"Blueprint for Action," aimed at promoting breast-feeding, Mary Lou Valdez,
associate director for multilateral affairs in the HHS Office of
International and Refugee Health, told the PAHO meeting in Washington.
While she added that infants should "ideally" be breast-fed exclusively for
the first 6 months of life and should continue to be breast-fed, along with
complementary foods, through their first year of life, she told Reuters
Health that HHS will not recommend that guideline in its forthcoming report.
Yet the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 6 months of exclusive
breast-feeding.
The debate over the duration of exclusive breast-feeding has ignited so much
debate in recent months that PAHO Director Dr. George A. O. Alleyne told
attending health ministers, "This is an issue that has generated much
heat...but we've lost sight of the purpose."
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