<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><xml><records><record><source-app name="HighWire" version="7.x">Drupal-HighWire</source-app><ref-type name="Journal Article">17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Pullum, Thomas W</style></author></authors><secondary-authors></secondary-authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Exclusive breastfeeding: aligning the indicator with the goal</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Global Health: Science and Practice</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2014</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2014-08-01 00:00:00</style></date></pub-dates></dates><pages><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">355-356</style></pages><doi><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">10.9745/GHSP-D-14-00061</style></doi><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2</style></volume><issue><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">3</style></issue><abstract><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">While the global objective is exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for a full 6 months duration, the standard indicator is a “prevalence” indicator, that is, the percentage of all children under age 6 months who are exclusively breastfed at a point in time. That yields a higher percentage than a more direct indicator of duration and can be easily misunderstood, exaggerating the amount of EBF. A measurement of actual percentage of children exclusively breastfeeding for a full 6 months can be easily calculated from standard DHS and MICS data. Recognizing that exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is a key to child survival, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that “infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health.”1 To assess EBF, WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF),2,3 and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)4 use an indicator defined as the percentage of children under 6 months of age who are being exclusively breastfed at a point in time. A recent and valuable report from WHO, World Health Statistics 2013, includes that indicator for most countries of the world under the label “exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life.”5Thus, a discrepancy exists between the recommendation and the indicator. The …</style></abstract></record></records></xml>