The WHO guidelines for exercising feeding options for infants and young children are:¹

• Milk from own parent by breastfeeding,
• Milk from own parent, expressed,
• Milk from a wet nurse, or
• Milk from a milk bank, or
• Breastmilk substitute fed by cup,
  depending on individual circumstances and as discussed with a healthcare provider.

To enable parents to establish and sustain exclusive breastfeeding for six months, WHO and UNICEF recommend:

• Initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour of life;
• Exclusive breastfeeding –that is, the infant only receives breastmilk (including milk expressed or from a wet nurse) without any additional food or drink or water;
• Breastfeeding on demand –that is, as often as the child wants, day and night;
• No use of bottles, teats, or pacifiers.

In this document, Eats on Feets uses the WHO definition of exclusive breastfeeding, which includes wet nursing and donor milk. In support of exclusive breastfeeding, in circumstances where breastfeeding from a wet nurse is not feasible, informed milksharing can be a safe and viable infant feeding option for families. Milk sharing can be interpreted as an extension of wet nursing, and as a safe alternative for infant feeding and successful exclusive breastfeeding.

Next: Why human milk substitutes?

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1. WHO/UNICEF. 2003. The Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, bullet 18: The vast majority can and should breastfeed, just as the vast majority of infants can and should be breastfed. Only under exceptional circumstances can a baby’s own mother’s milk be considered unsuitable for her infant. For those few health situations where infants cannot, or should not, be breastfed, the choice of the best alternative –expressed breastmilk from an infant’s own parent, breastmilk from a healthy wet nurse or a human-milk bank, or a breast-milk substitute fed with a cup, which is a safer method than a feeding bottle and teat –depends on individual circumstances. ↩︎