Ted Greiner's observations about feeding terminology are
appreciated. A functional definition for <complementary
food> is provided, for example, in Art. 3 of the
International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes:
<Any food, whether manufactured or locally prepared,
suitable as a complement to breast milk or to infant
formula, when either becomes insufficient to satisfy the
nutritional requirements of the infant. Such food is also
commonly called <weaning food> or <breast-milk supplement>.
In chapter 4, on complementary feeding, of <Infant feeding:
the physiological basis> (WHO, 1990), <weaning process> is
described as the <progressive transfer of the infant from
breast milk to the usual family diet>. Thus, for the
purposes of the definition, weaning *begins* when the infant
receives food *other than* breast milk, and *ends* when the
infant ceases to receive any breast milk at all, that is
when the child is completely *weaned*. Some of the typical
remarks we in WHO have heard in recent years from various
cultural and linguistic points of view, notably Middle
Eastern and Scandinavian, suggest, as Ted noted, that the
[equivalent] words <wean> and <weaning> are
inappropriate in some environments, since they are viewed a
little like a tap that is on one minute and off the next,
and therefore have none of the subtle, *gradual* flavour of
the above definition of <weaning process>. On/off would, of
course, be inconsistent with WHO's feeding recommendation,
which is to promote breast milk as the *exclusive* source of
nourishment for the first 4 to 6 months of a child's life,
and thereafter continued breast-feeding, together with
nutritionally adequate and safe *complementary* foods, for
up to two years of age or beyond.
Jim Akre, Nutrition unit, WHO, Geneva
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