Breastfeeding declines in Asian region

From the BBC: news item on the decline in breastfeeding in developing countries in the Asia Pacific region.

One exception is Cambodia:

In 2000, one in 10 Cambodian mothers were still breastfeeding their children when they were six months old.

Five years later, the figure had grown to six out of 10, says the BBC's Guy De Launey in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The child mortality rate in Cambodia dropped by a third in the same period and the WHO believes breastfeeding is largely to credit.

"It's not just a matter of cost - it's a matter of survival for infants in developing countries," Dr Chessa Lutter from the WHO told the BBC.

Infants born into conditions of poverty where there is not the access to clean water and adequate sanitation to safely feed infants formula milk, benefit from breastfeeding, she said.

Children in developed countries who are breastfed benefit too. They "have better cognitive development" and lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, Dr Lutter added.

Across Asia, only 35% of mothers breastfeed until their baby is 6 months old. The figure in the Philippines is less than half that. Measures were finally introduced by the Philippines government last year to combat the problem, but infant formula companies in the Philippines have launched a legal challenge against the strict marketing code imposed on the industry.

They're baby killers. Profit before human life. Profit before the life of a tiny baby.

Of course, if Tony Abbott was in charge of the Philippines he'd probably just say it was a 'choice' for the parents to make, and their bad luck if they made the wrong one.