SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Approaches to Nutrition Counseling in Pediatric Dietetics - Guidelines, Practices, and Future DirectionsView all 13 articles
Nutritional Counseling Strategies in Breastfeeding: A Scoping Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universita di Pavia, Pavia, Italy
- 2Freelance Dietitan, Livorno, Italy
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Breastfeeding provides unparalleled health benefits for infants and mothers, yet exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rates remain suboptimal worldwide. Nutritional counseling (NC) has been identified as a key strategy to support and sustain breastfeeding, but the scope and effectiveness of such interventions have not been systematically mapped. We conducted a scoping review to identify and synthesize evidence on NC strategies for breastfeeding mothers. Following Arksey & O'Malley's framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we searched PubMed (2015-2025) for studies of prenatal or postnatal counseling interventions aimed at improving breastfeeding outcomes. Twenty-nine studies (RCTs, quasi-experimental, qualitative) from diverse countries were included. Counseling interventions (delivered individually, remotely or face-to-face) were generally associated with higher EBF rates and longer breastfeeding duration. Twelve studies also reported improvements in maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy and reductions in common breastfeeding problems. Mobile-based and peer support interventions showed promising results, especially in low-resource settings. These findings align with current global recommendations on breastfeeding counseling. We discuss implementation challenges (e.g. training needs, definitional clarity) and underline that targeted NC is an effective tool to increase breastfeeding rates. Future work should standardize counseling approaches, expand training for providers, and evaluate long-term impacts and cost-effectiveness.
Keywords: breastfeeding, Breastfeeding counseling, maternal education, Nutritional counseling, Scoping review
Received: 12 Sep 2025; Accepted: 29 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Neri, Guglielmetti, Chiapponi, Fiorini and Ferraris. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Simona Fiorini
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