Breast-feeding in Europe--rationale and prevalence, challenges and possibilities for promotion.

The status reports and other information collected showed that interpretation of the data on breast-feeding prevalence and duration collected at national or regional level within European countries is difficult, since this information is not collected in every country or it is gathered under different criteria. However, there seem to be vast differences in prevalence of breast-fed children and breast-feeding duration between European countries and possibly within countries. There is a need to establish monitoring systems enabling comparability of data between countries. Assessing determinants for breast-feeding is required as well. There are a number of important consensus documents supporting breast-feeding action. These documents are related to either one or more of the following categories: health benefits of breast-feeding; recommendations regarding breast-feeding duration and exclusiveness; providing guidance on breast-feeding promotion. Current recommendation is exclusive breast-feeding for 6 months.