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By examining the debates that took place from the late 1960s onwards within the World Health Organization regarding the practice of feeding breast-milk substitutes to infants, one may revisit the strategies and techniques of (de) politicization used by NGOs, companies, states and IO bureaucracies within and adjacent to the arena of international organizations. The present article uses the notions of politicization and depoliticization in order to clarify the operation of the WHO beyond what is very often taken for its “technical” character and to underscore the investments made in it, particularly on the part of non-state actors. The three strategies identified here – provoking conflict rather than seeking consensus, desiring publication rather than containment and appealing to ideological principles instead of promoting a pragmatic approach – are implemented by various techniques (appealing to political representatives, experts, scientific or technical arguments, the media) and in differentiated manner depending on the type of actor. A formative moment for the WHO, the question of breast-milk substitutes generated knock-on effects of politicization. These subsequently became permanent and underwent sectoral expansion to new themes.