Baby food industry lobbies WHO on breast feeding advice

Manufacturers of infant food are lobbying the World Health Organization (WHO) to delay any change to its recommendations on the optimal length of exclusive breast feeding.

The current WHO guidelines advocate complementary feeding at “4-6 months.” But many nutrition specialists believe that these guidelines lead to complementary foods being offered from the age of 3 months, or even earlier, and that the WHO should change its recommendations to “about 6 months” (20 May, p 1362). Some member states of the WHO, together with advocacy groups on breast feeding, hope that a resolution will be made to adopt this change at the World Health Assembly in May 2001.

A document passed to the BMJ …