Until now the official recommendation of the World Health Organization is that mothers should exclusively breastfeed their children until the age of 4-6 months, and Nestlé has complied with that recommendation (or the age specified by national governments) in the labelling and marketing of its infant foods, including cereals, jarred baby foods, and other products. This recommendation is a part of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, passed as a recommendation to governments by the 1981 World Health Assembly.

Based on the report of a WHO Expert Consultation held on March 28-30, 2001 which reviewed the issue of recommended age of introduction of complementary (weaning) foods for infants, Nestlé CEO Peter Brabeck made the following statement at the Nestlé Annual Shareholders' Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 5.

"WHO has up to now recommended that infants should be exclusively breastfed until an age between 4 and 6 months, and Nestlé has complied with that recommendation in its application of the International Code. That recommendation referring to an age range has, unfortunately, appeared ambiguous and has led to controversy, and we are happy that a clarification is now apparently within sight.

We have indeed received the World Health Organization's note for the press of April 2nd announcing that a committee of experts has issued a statement calling for a revision of that recommendation. Those experts recommend exclusive breastfeeding to a specific age of 6 months instead of an age range. Afterwards complementary foods must absolutely be introduced. We must point out, and I have of course the text with me here with highlights as you can see, that the committee has said that children's needs vary from one individual to another, and individual mothers vary in their nutritional status, which of course affects the quality of the breastfeeding.

That recommendation thus sets a general goal of 6 months, but the committee has also indicated that additional research needs to be carried out to assess the needs of infants in varying circumstances, including in cases of infants born small-for-gestational-age and underweight babies at 6 months. And this call reflects the committee's recognition that exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months is a general recommendation, and that it is difficult to apply a unique duration for breastfeeding if individual needs of each child are to be taken into consideration.

Now even with all this I can publicly assure you that Nestlé is in favor of the expert committee's recommendation as it aims at removing the ambiguity in the recommendation which prevailed up to now, and hopefully will end the long-standing debate over the optimal duration of exclusive breastfeeding.
Nestlé will thus support the World Health Assembly's serious consideration of the Expert Consultation's recommendations in May."