98% of mothers in Mali breastfeed their babies, for an average duration of 22 months. But much needs to be done to improve the practice of breastfeeding. 30% of children 12 months and older are still exclusively breastfed, while 6.1% of those aged 0-5 months already receive solid foods. The health and demographic survey conducted in Mali in 1987 indicated that 37.1% of breastfed children had had diarrhea in the 2 weeks preceding the survey. 31.3% of infants in Bamako, 44.2% in other cities, and 36.1% in rural areas had had diarrhea. The data for rural and urban areas are not comparable however because the urban fieldwork took place in the rainy season while the rural work occurred in the dry season. 32.5% of children whose parents used good drinking water vs. 38.1% of other children had diarrhea. 34.2% of children whose parents had a household source of drinking water vs. 37.8% of other children had diarrhea. 31.3% of children in households with soap vs. 38.3% of other children had diarrhea. 74.6% of children in Bamako, 70.9% in other urban areas, and 63.7% in rural areas were considered to have a normal nutritional state. 72.2% of children of mothers with at least some education vs. 64.5% of children of illiterate mothers had normal nutritional states. Among infants aged 12-17 months or more, those who had been weaned or who received solid foods in addition to breast milk had better nutritional states than those exclusively breastfed. At 12-17 months, 87.7% of weaned infants vs. 46.1% of exclusively breastfed infant had normal nutritional states. The promotion of breastfeeding in Mali should be approached from the perspective of encouraging the introduction of supplementary solid foods according to the nutritional needs of infants.