Background
Over the past decade, the government of Malaysia has
recognized the significance of breastfeeding and infant
nutrition. The National Breastfeeding Policy was formu-
latedin1993andrevisedin2005inaccordancewith
the World Health Assembly Resolution 54.2 (2001)
whereby exclusive breastfeeding was recommended for
the first six months of life as a public health measure
and thereafter continued up to two years of age and
beyond with timely, adequate and safe complementary
foods [1]. According to Malaysia Third National Health
and Morbidity Survey 2006 (NHMS III), the prevalence
of infants who initiated breastfeeding within one hour of
birth was 63.7% (95% CI: 61.4, 65.9) while the preva-
lence among children less than 12 years ever breastfed
was 94.7% (95% CI: 93.0, 95.9) [2]. The prevalence of
exclusive breastfeeding up to four months and six
months were 19.3% (95% CI: 15.5, 23.9) and 14.5% (95%
CI: 11.7, 17.9) respectively [2].