would mn consider advertising the Nestle Boycott?

[sambo303]

To MN HQ

Baby Milk Action has created a logo for adding to websites here

Would MN consider adding this logo to this website? Nestle are still breaking international advertising standards and causing the deaths of infants around the world.

[Reallytired]

I doult that they will. There is a bottle in the mumsnet logo.

Also mumsnet isn't a breastfeeding site. Its for all mums.

[tiktok]

You could always ask, sambo.

Reallytired, Nestle boycott is nothing to do with bottle feeding...or only tangentially. It's to do with supporting the ethical marketing of formula, which all parents (and all people!) can understand, however their own children were/are fed. People who use formula, for whatever reason, can still care about how the stuff they and others buy is marketed, surely?

[sambo303]

thanks tiktok it's a bit worrying when the Nestle Boycott starts being seen as bf supporting rather than what it is, fighting against underhand marketing ploys worldwide. I would have thought all mums care about the health of all babies however they are fed.

[sambo303]

reallytired you have highlighted that the boycott needs more high profile advertising on eg MN. Do you think it's promoting bf over ff? That's incorrect.

Nestle (and other formula manufacturers) agressively promote their formula to new mothers and health professionals in countries where:

there is limited access to clean drinking water needed to make up formula

there is limited access to electricity meaning that more work is required to light fires and keep them going to heat water to kill pathogens to make the formula/no electric lights in the night to make up feeds

there is limited access to doctors and medicines for babies that become ill through drinking formula contaminated by water not being boiled before making formula

there is limited access to sanitary conditions for making formula

labels stating important safety info and how to make feeds are in English, not translated

the cost of formula can mean other family members go hungry

Nestle do these things to make a profit, they know babies will die because of their marketing.

These are facts. I am sure mums in the UK do care about this however they feed their own baby.

[pigletmania]

Oh thanks Sambo, my goodness they sound like the big drug companies who have a manopoly over the drugs industry so that people in poorer countries have to pay for the more expensive drugs instead of being allowed to use the cheaper generic drugs. I just thought that Nestle boycotting was about anti formula feeding, i did not realise they operate in this way, taking advantage of people in poorer countries. I ff my child not out of choice but because my body was not doing what it should, and know that formula has to be made with sterile water using sterile bottles etc which is hard in third world countries.

[Jennylee]

reading the site and the guardian article on bangladesh is so depressing, the poor Mum's and their babies. Is not like here where you can afford it or get milk vouchers for formula, is really awful how much it costs them and then they end up with very ill babies when they are only to do what they think is better because of the advertising.

[MrsMotMot]

Would be good if MN put it on the site, so am bumping this thread FAO MN HQ!

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[ilovemydogandmrobama]

What would help is a comprehensive list of all Nestle products...

[JustineMumsnet]

Yep sure thing and good idea - we'll get it up soonest.

[tiktok]

christiana - in many, many countries of the world, formula is marketed unethically. You may not have been in countries where it happened or where it was obvious. Sometimes, the marketing is done to healthcare professionals; sometimes it is direct to mothers.

You can read more about the situation at IBFAN www.ibfan.org/site2005/Pages/index2.php?iui=1

[ilovemydogandmrobama]

Body Shop

[Lulumama]

I formula fed my DCs and totally support the boycott. would be great for the power of MN to get behind it

www.babymilkaction.org/pages/products.html here is a list of nestlé products

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[Swedes]

Re the bottle in the Mumsnet logo. If you look closely, you'll see it's Hunkermunker en route to the bin with the bottle having just whipped it from that baby's raised right arm.

[Lulumama]

but it's not about breast is best or being anti formula feeding, it;s about the ethics of how formula was and is promoted .

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[tiktok]

christiana, it's help you to look at the websites - IBFAN and Baby Milk Action. There is no objection to women using formula; there are women who have no choice, and women whose life circumstances make it an inevitability; and women who for whatever reason use it.

Its sale and availability do not need to be restricted - people who need formula should be able to buy it (poor people will not be able to afford carton milk, and in any case, bottles and teats still have to be cleaned adequately).

The issue is marketing, which can be done ethically, or unethically. Fortunately there is an international Code ('the WHO Code') which has been in use since 1981, and which is some countries is law.

This helps to ensure formula is not promoted in a way which undermines breastfeeding, and which ensures safe use of formula. Some of the points in the Code relate to the use of languages on the packs, for instance, and it prevents manufacturers from making spurious claims.

[AnarchyAunt]

Yep, great idea. Thank you v v much Justine for looking into getting it onto MN

As everyone else says, the Nestle boycott is absolutely not 'anti-formula'.

In fact it is for the benefit of all babies - it is in everyone's best interests to have formula marketed in the most ethical way possible and to have information disseminated to all parents rather than advertising.

The parents and babies in developing countries, with all the issues that sambo has highlighted, deserve better than to have formula aggressively and illegally marketed to them, undermining BF rates in places where BF is absolutely crucial to babies' survival. In the developed world we are lucky enough to have clean water, relatively cheap fuel, and free healthcare, which mean the risks are far fewer. There are places where this really is a matter of life and death.

[ilovemydogandmrobama]

If one is pursuing the hygiene aspect, ready made cartons still doesn't change the fact that bottles need sterilizing with safe, clean water.

Quite aside from breaching international advertising standards

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[Noonki]

Hurray Justine!!!

[SarahL2]

Hooray?

[Noonki]

thanks sarah spelling never been a strong point!

I've been boycotting them for years and apparently very few people still have even heard of the issue.

Or completely don't understand it and few it as a ff/bf arguement which it isnt in the slightest.

[SarahL2]

Sorry Noonki - wasn't meaning to correct your spelling, was just wondering what was being celebrated....have Mumsnet agreed to back the boycott?