(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-27 16:45

BEIJING  -- About 20 percent of Chinese infants get breast-fed for less than six months, according to a survey issued here on Wednesday. This was due to a lack of popularization of scientific infant feeding knowledge.

The All China Women's Federation survey polled more than 6,500 people in 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. It found 80 percent of mothers breast-fed their babies for six months or beyond.

About 7.1 percent never breast-fed, it said.

It also found infants in the country's developed eastern region received less breast-feeding time than those in the undeveloped central and western areas.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued the "Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding" guideline in 2002 to "promote, protect and support appropriate infant and child feeding".

"All mothers should have access to skilled support to initiate and sustain exclusive breast-feeding for six months and ensure the timely introduction of adequate and safe complementary foods with continued breast-feeding up to two years or beyond," it said.

China's Ministry of Health issued its own infant-feeding strategy in 2004 in accordance with the WHO's global strategy.

According to statistics, more than 10 million babies are born in China annually.