Kathy's Commentaries

WHO Breastfeeding Definitions

cited by Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.


Department of Anthropology,
Texas A & M University
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"In 1988, the Interagency Group for Action on Breastfeeding (IGAB), composed of the United States Agency for International Development (A.I.D.), the Swedish International Development Agency, the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF, proposed standard terminology for the collection and description of data on breastfeeding behavior. Categories of . . . . were adopted. However, in 1991, the WHO proposed modifications to these definitions, and it is widely assumed that the new terminology will supersede the IGAB categories."

WHO breastfeeding terminology:

Exclusive Breastfeeding

  • Requires that the infant receive breast milk (including milk expressed or from wet nurse)
  • Allows the infant to receive drops, syrups (vitamins, minerals, medicines)
  • Does not allow the infant to receive anything else

    • Predominant Breastfeeding

  • Requires that the infant receive breast milk (including milk expressed or from wet nurse) as the predominant source of nourishment
  • Allows the infant to receive liquids (water, and water-based drinks, fruit, juice, oral rehydration solution), ritual fluids and drops or syrups (vitamins, minerals, medicines)
  • Does not allow the infant to receive anything else (in particular non-human milk, food-based fluids)

    • Complementary Feeding

  • Requires that the infant receive breast milk and solid or semi-solid foods
  • Allows the infant to receive any food or liquid including non-human milk

    • Breastfeeding

  • Requires that the infant receive breast milk
  • Allows the infant to receive any food or liquid including non-human milk

    • Bottle-Feeding

  • Requires that the infant receive any liquid or semi-solid food from a bottle with nipple/teat
  • Allows the infant to receive breast milk by bottle

    • Exclusive and predominant breastfeeding categories together constitue "full breastfeeding."

    Fuller discussion of terminological issues, and references to the original IGAB and WHO discussions can be found in "Infant Feeding Practices and Growth" by Katherine A. Dettwyler and Claudia Fishman, Annual Review of Anthropology, 1992, volume 21, pages 171-204.

    Hope this helps clarify the situation.

    Prepared  August 3, 1995.

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    Last updated March 11, 2004 , by kad. Contents copyright 1999-2004 Sue Ann Kendall and Kathy Dettwyler. Thanks to Prairienet, the Free-Net of east-central Illinois , for hosting this site from 1999 through 2004.
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