Health professionals and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

There is no doubt that breastfeeding is the healthiest means of infant feeding. The benefits are outlined well in the 2005 American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Breastfeeding. This holds true for both developing and developed countries. In 2001 the World Health Assembly (WHA) recommended that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months, then with the introduction of appropriate complementary foods, continue to be breastfed to 2 years or beyond. In Hong Kong, a survey done by the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative Hong Kong Association in 2005 (released at the World Breastfeeding Week press conference in July 2006) found that the breastfeeding initiation rate had increased to 64.2%. This rate drops significantly once the baby goes home. According to Hong Kong Department of Health Statistics (presented at the World Breastfeeding Week press conference in July 2005), in 2004 the exclusive breastfeeding rate was only 11.5% at 4 to 6 months.