More than half of infants in developing countries are breast fed for less than six months, report says

More than half of infants born in developing countries each year are being breast fed for less than the recommended six months, warns a new report.

The report investigates breastfeeding practices and infant feeding policies in 33 developing countries taking part in the World Breastfeeding Trend Initiative. This is an ongoing project being run by the International Baby Food Action Network Asia to help countries monitor implementation of measures to achieve the World Health Organization’s recommendations on feeding of infants.

Its results show that only around 36 million of the 78 million infants born each year in the 33 countries surveyed get what is considered the optimal amount of breast feeding. The report defines this as exclusive breast feeding for the …