title: Monitoring the World Health Organization Global Target 2025 for Exclusive Breastfeeding: Experience From the United States.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months, calculated from a single 24-hour recall among mothers of children 0 to 5 months of age, is a World Health Organization (WHO) indicator used to monitor progress on the 2025 global breastfeeding target. Many upper-middle-income and high-income countries, including the United States, do not have estimates for this indicator. Research aim: To describe the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a single 24-hour dietary recall from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2012 to calculate the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months. We discuss our results in the context of routine breastfeeding surveillance, which is reported from a national survey with different methodology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among children younger than 6 months, 24.4%, 95% confidence interval [17.6, 31.1], were exclusively breastfed the previous day.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To our knowledge, this is the first estimate of the WHO indicator of exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months for the United States. This study supports the global surveillance and data strategy for reporting to the WHO on the 2025 target for exclusive breastfeeding.
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Priya M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Cria G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Perrine
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.|2 DB Consulting Group Inc., Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: 3 Immunization Services Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Laurie D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Elam-Evans
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Flores-Ayala
mesh_terms: D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D014943:Global Health / Q000639:trends*; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014944:World Health Organization / Q000458:organization & administration*
keywords: breastfeeding; breastfeeding rates; epidemiological methods; exclusive breastfeeding; infant nutrition; nutrition