Food supplementation programs and breastfeeding practices.

There has been insufficient evaluation of food supplementation programs and their effect on breastfeeding. On the one hand, they reach millions of childbearing women, often in rural areas with little or no other services, and act as a magnet for other health interventions to take place. On the other hand, the risks of substituting food assistance for breast milk and overburdening health personnel with feeding responsibilities, contradict breastfeeding promotion efforts. There is some evidence that focusing on pregnant women rather than infants will reduce these problems and will result in fewer low birth weight babies and better capacity for the mother to produce breast milk.