Infant feeding in emergencies

Recent experience of emergency relief operations in middle-income countries has shown that infant feeding issues can greatly complicate attempts to protect infant health. The two main problems are: how to protect and support breastfeeding in communities where it is no longer the norm and how to assist artificially fed infants without exposing them to the dramatically increased risks associated with artificial feeding under disaster conditions. This article explores the underlying issues and makes a number of recommendations for policy and programmes.