Based on international and national guidelines, complementary foods should be introduced at six months of age. At this age, breastfeeding alone is no longer sufficient, because infant's needs for energy and nutrients start to exceed. In 2018, globally 40 % of infants under six months were exclusively breastfed. In Slovenia, however the percentage of exclusively breastfed infants under six months was only 5,5 %. In 1981 the World Health Organization (WHO) published the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, which seeks to protect breastfeeding and encourage mothers to breastfeed and raise awarness about inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes. In recent years there were more and more so-called commercially available complementary foods (CACFs) that are advertised as suitable for infants under six months of age. CACFs are available throughout the world, but their quality can be sometimes questionable. There is not enough information about the nutritional composition of CACFs, especially composition of total sugars, salt and fats. Food producers use health and nutritional claims for promotion of CACFs which could imply that CACFs are nutritionally superior to home-prepared complementary foods. Inaproppriate dietary habits at young ages persist into later years and can increase the risk of childhood obesity and chronic diseases. WHO calls upon all food producers and marketing professionals to stop the inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children.
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