vi Acknowledgments The development of this Model Chapter was initiated by the Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development of the World Health Organization,as part of its efforts to promote the integration of evidence- based public health interventions in basic training of health professionals.The Model Chapter is designed for use in textbooks used by health sciences faculties,as a result of the positive experience with the Model Chapter on Integrated Management of Childhood Illness. The process of development of the Model Chapter on infant and young child feeding started in 2003.Drafts were presented in meetings with professors of health sciences schools in various regions and modifications made accordingly.There was an external review of the document in 2006,with the group of reviewers including Anto- nio da Cunha,Dai Yaohua,Nonhlanhla Dlamini,Hoang Trong Kim,Sandra Lang,Chessa Lutter,Nalini Singhal, Maryanne Stone-Jimenez and Elizabeth Rodgers.All of the reviewers have declared no conflict of interest.Even though the document was developed with inputs from many experts,some of them deserve special mention. Ann Brownlee edited an earlier version of the document,while Felicity Savage King wrote the final draft.Peggy Henderson conducted the editorial review.The three have declared no conflict of interest. Staff from the Departments of Child and Adolescent Health and Development and Nutrition for Health and Development were technically responsible and provided oversight to all aspects of the developmental work. While developing the Model Chapter,several updates of existing recommendations were conducted by WHO, and these were integrated into the Chapter.The updates include information on HIV and infant feeding(2007), management of uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition (2007),infant and young child feeding indicators (2008)and medical reasons for use of breast-milk substitutes(2008) The chapter is expected to be updated by the year 2013.vi Acknowledgments T he development of this Model Chapter was initiated by the Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development of the World Health Organization, as part of its efforts to promote the integration of evidence￾based public health interventions in basic training of health professionals. The Model Chapter is designed for use in textbooks used by health sciences faculties, as a result of the positive experience with the Model Chapter on Integrated Management of Childhood Illness. The process of development of the Model Chapter on infant and young child feeding started in 2003. Drafts were presented in meetings with professors of health sciences schools in various regions and modifications made accordingly. There was an external review of the document in 2006, with the group of reviewers including Anto￾nio da Cunha, Dai Yaohua, Nonhlanhla Dlamini, Hoang Trong Kim, Sandra Lang, Chessa Lutter, Nalini Singhal, Maryanne Stone-Jimenez and Elizabeth Rodgers. All of the reviewers have declared no conflict of interest. Even though the document was developed with inputs from many experts, some of them deserve special mention. Ann Brownlee edited an earlier version of the document, while Felicity Savage King wrote the final draft. Peggy Henderson conducted the editorial review. The three have declared no conflict of interest. Staff from the Departments of Child and Adolescent Health and Development and Nutrition for Health and Development were technically responsible and provided oversight to all aspects of the developmental work. While developing the Model Chapter, several updates of existing recommendations were conducted by WHO, and these were integrated into the Chapter. The updates include information on HIV and infant feeding (2007), management of uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition (2007), infant and young child feeding indicators (2008) and medical reasons for use of breast-milk substitutes (2008) The chapter is expected to be updated by the year 2013