Gill Rapley, deputy director of UNICEF's Baby Friendly Initiative, has sparked controversy in the UK over comments that pureed baby food is unnecessary.
Rapley emphasizes the recommendation made by the World Health Organization and UNICEF that all women exclusively breastfeed for at least the first six months of a baby's life.
She said studies have found pureed food is unnatural and unnecessary, and children should be weaned from breast milk directly to solid foods.
"I found so many parents were coming to me with the same problems - 'my child is constipated, my child is really picky' - and they couldn't get them on to second stage baby food," Rapley told the BBC.
Her method, known as baby-led weaning, advises parents to introduce solid finger foods to children who can sit upright instead of using pureed foods.
Rapley is not the only woman making headlines about breastfeeding.
Jill Coccaro, who now goes by the name Phoenix Feeley, has accepted a $29,000 settlement from the city of New York after being arrested on a topless stroll two years ago.
The arrest came despite a 1992 state appeals court ruling that concluded women should have the same right as men to take off their shirts.
Her attorney, Jeffrey Rothman, told the Daily News that his client won the civil rights settlement from the city, which did not admit or deny wrongdoing.
"We hope the police learn a lesson and respect the rights of women to go topless," Rothman said.
Feeley spoke to Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing health editor of FOXNews.com, about the reasoning behind her topless walk. She said the stroll was about a woman's right to breastfeed in public, a right she felt many women do not know about. Her specific case did not involve breastfeeding.
New York is one of 38 states that specifically allows for breastfeeding in public and private locations, with another 21 states exempting breastfeeding from public indecency laws.
Dr. Miriam Labbok, a senior advisor to UNICEF's Infant & Young Child Feeding and Care explains the importance of breastfeeding on UNICEF's website.
"Breastfed children have at least six times greater chance of survival in the early months - breastfeeding drastically reduces deaths from acute respiratory infection and diarrhea, two major child killers, as well as from other infectious diseases," Labbok wrote.
These recommendations are not only for children in the developing world, but for all children. UNICEF noted a recent study that found a 25 percent increase in infant mortality rates in the U.S. when babies were not breastfed.
Some studies have also found that children who were fed breast milk have lower obesity rates and higher IQ levels than forumula-fed children. Breastfeeding also has benefits for the mother, including decreased blood loss postpartum and decreased risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Dr. Manny Alvarez reviewed this article.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox