My understanding is that the US was present at the World Health Assembly
meeting in 1994 at which a consensus of the meeting reaffirmed the Code.
There was no vote.  (The story I heard was that African countries were
calling for a vote "so we can see who is against babies," so rather than go
on record against the Code the US joined the consensus.)  This is about as
tepid a kind of support as one can have, and it's a positive thing only when
you compare it with the even worse position the US took when it voted against
the Code in 1981.

I haven't searched any White House documents, but I did come across the
following statement in a report from the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and
Promotion, "Nutrition Action Themes for the United States, a report in
response to the International Conference on Nutrition."  Publication CNPP-2.
The authoring agencies are USDA, DHHS, and USAID.

QUOTE: "Government policy strongly promotes and seeks to increase
breastfeeding in the United States.  The United States endorsed the 1994
resolution of the World Health Assembly on the voluntary International Code
of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, including the tightening up on the
provision of free or low-cost supplies of breastmilk substitutes to hospitals
and other health care providers (WHO, 1994).  Those words appear on page 23.
WHO, 1994 is "Infant and Young Child Nutrition," Document EB 93.R9.
Executive Board of World Health Organization.

Then there are many programs listed: the HP 2000 goal for breastfeeding, MCH
Bureau grants, WIC program, Bf Promotion Consortium, NIH and USDA research,
and lots of good ideas that ought to be undertaken but are not.  One of the
sillier statements, in my opinion, is the one in the "gaps" section that
says, "All of the health and long-term social benefits of breastfeeding are
not yet known, so it is difficult to estimate the true benefits of
breastfeeding for the mother, infant, family, and society."  Like, duh, "we
know it's gotta be pretty good, but since we can't measure, we won't try to
say HOW good it is."

Chris

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