If you've been following the unfolding infant formula labelling story...

[PrincessHunker]

Here's the latest chapter

And I've been thinking - advertising of formula actively suppresses accurate breastfeeding and bottlefeeding information. How? Find me a mainstream baby magazine that's willing to print any more than a fluffy piece about bf and I'll show you one that doesn't carry formula adverts...

We should all care about this.

[Lulumama]

well, i care. i do. am almost finished 'the politics of breastfeeding' and i am incandescent grrrrrrrrrr

[PrincessHunker]

Where did you get your copy, Lulumama? I am currently without and couldn't find it anywhere I looked. It ought to be compulsory reading, I think! Read Fresh Milk next, if you haven't already - it's more lighthearted!

[PrincessHunker]

Oh, I might have to wait till August and buy the 3rd Edition!

[Lulumama]

i offered to be librarian for the local NCT !

have not read fresh milk, who is it by?

i can lend you my copy as long as you send it back !!

[PrincessHunker]

Ah, brilliant move!

Fresh Milk - do read it, it's fab. I'd lend you mine, but it's already on loan!

I'll see if I can scare up my own copy, before August, LM, but thank you very much - if I can't, I'll get back to you!

[sherby]

I care too!

Horrible incident in Tesco the other day when I noticed a very young indian couple with a tiny little newborn in the trolley buying follow on milk. They had asked a young man which one they should buy and he didn't have a clue either.

I ended up having to explain by pointing at their baby and the number 1 on the tin and then pointing at my big baby and the number 2/3 on the tin. I think they got it in the end because they went off with a newborn formula but my god I was that they don't have decent enough labelling for somebody to be able to understand which one they need.

[verylittlecarrot]

God, that's hideous, Sherby. Well done for helping.

[Lulumama]

no worries princess(snort!)hunker!

good for you for helping sherby.....

i think the fact that there are soooo many brands is just so confusing and unhelpful

my advice for anyone not sure which one to buy: go for the one they sell in the late nigh shop/ petrol station etc so that if you should run out at 2 am , you can get some easily...

[PrincessHunker]

The Tesco Metro near where I work often only has SMA White or follow-on and nothing else. That's shit, isn't it?

[Lulumama]

yep, tis shite!

the one near me has gold and white and follow on, as does the corner shop.

but in smaller tins that cost almost as much as the big tins

do you think that there will come a point where breastfeeding becomes the norm again? can it come full circle, there must have been a tipping point where formula became accepted as the norm?

iyswim

[Sabire]

"Find me a mainstream baby magazine that's willing to print any more than a fluffy piece about bf and I'll show you one that doesn't carry formula adverts..."

I'm obsessed with the way baby mags deal with the issue of baby feeding.

I upset myself every month by leafing through every new edition of Mother and Baby magazine, or Practical Parenting, counting the number of pages containing formula and bottle adverts. They generally outnumber page space devoted to breastfeeding by about 20 to 1.

[needmorecoffee]

I loathe Mother and Baby magazines. Do you ever see disabled babies in them? No you don't

[NAB3wishesfor2008]

Write to them. M&B are quite good at featuring regular readers when they contact them to offer articles.

By regular I mean you and me, not them using agency type people iykwim.

[Caz10]

lulamama i have just realised when reading your post that when i was pregnant i thought bf-ing was the norm! i have NO idea why - no friends with babies, none in family etc, had never and still haven't discussed it with my mum...I just thought I was going to bf and that was that. Wondering now why?
Anyway have since been made to feel like a mad woman for bf-ing dd, I am (naively probably) massively shocked! I really had NO idea.
What was the tipping point for formula do you think?

[Lulumama]

as soon as formula was mass produced and marketed , momentum started to build... once a big company can pay for and market something, the free natural alternative is threatened.

the advertising and the information about formula and the info on the tins 'closer to breasmilk' etc does not help. it is the implication that what is in the tin is almost the same as breastmilk, and if you formula feed, dads can get involved....

forgettting that baby's have lots of other needs apart from feeding that need meeting!!

also, i thikn as a society we are really hard on new mothers.... and i don;t think that it is often appreciated how often a newborn needs to feed and that the first 6 weeks should be written of to babymooning..but we don;t really go for that , we are supposed to give birth, get up and cook dinner ! well,you know what i mean!

i have no issue with formula per se, i formula fed both my children, a decision that i regret so much, it still makes me now. but my main sadness is that with support, i could have fed , certainly DD, who i tried to latch on at 4 days old...

the MW's advice was 'you can try her on the breast, but she might be more unsettled after 4 days on the bottle' end of advice

it is so much easier to give a mother a bottle with ready made formula in it, than to sit and help her breastfeeed , especially if you are looking after many other women

[charliegal]

Oh my god 'politics of breastfeeding', have just finished reading it and feel so depressed at the picture it paints. Brilliant book, please please read it if you can...

[PrincessHunker]

HCTS (PMSL at your name - have you changed it?), I agree totally - there's not that knowledge of the little things with many of the older generation that would help them to support their daughters. It's also hard to watch someone you love struggling when you think your experience would solve their problems (bf problems, give a bottle - heard all the time).

[TotalChaos]

Agree completely with your first para HTCS. My mum used to witter on to me about overfeeding DS - when I told her he was on 9th centile that stopped that one funnily enough - I think the 70s feeding culture was VERY different to today.

[BabiesEverywhere]

Thanks for the link.