Countries failing to stop harmful marketing of breast-milk substitutes, warn WHO and UNICEF **Title edited by MNHQ**

[Horehound]

www.who.int/news-room/detail/27-05-2020-countries-failing-to-stop-harmful-marketing-of-breast-milk-substitutes-warn-who-and-unicef

If anyone wants to read. WHO are not happy with countries be blazé about breastmilk substitutes

I was quite alarmed by the statement in the title of this thread which is within the link.

FED IS BEST.

That’s not a response to the report OP has shared is it. Shouting doesn’t help. Some types of feeding are normal, some are adequate alternatives, some are dangerous.

Wow, now I feel like shit.
I literally had no breast milk to give. I leaked about a 5p size worth. I don't know why I didn't have any.

heard that SIDS is pretty much unheard of in breast fed babies and there has never been a case of a sleeping mother smothering her baby in bed when the baby is breastfed. It was in a doc called the milky-way. Not sure how accurate the info is.
@HeatherIV I have a book called "gentle mothering" and it does say about cosleeping and breastfeeding may actually be safer because they found mother's to be much more alert. I'll have to find the book and have a look but at the same time there will be people absolutely sleep deprived and exhausted that it surely must still be risky.
I did cosleep/bf for a while but now he's in his own room :)

@SpillTheTeaa - the midwife told me I didn’t have milk (I have PCOS and Hypothyroidism which can cause supply issues but they are rare without a specific breast shape) when my baby lost 8% of his weight in three days, and refused to even consider that his heart shaped tongue might be the problem. Luckily for me I had a health visitor who knew her stuff and I was referred for help (and directed me to Kelly Mom’s Website). It took a lot of effort for me to keep EBF him but it eventually worked - his tongue tie eventually was cut and then he gained centiles. Things would be so much easier for breastfeeding mums if the NHS just checked for tongue tie

@SpillTheTea I would never criticize someone who chooses formula or cant bf. The issue is always about the source quality of formula and the way people use it. and I don't blame people who use it. I am just concerned about people being mislead or miss sold -there was an incident I do remember about tainted milk in China which I think was exported to NZ?

FED IS BEST

Fed is minimum. Informed and supported is best, and that goes for both BFing and FFing.

And we should all be bothered about the ethics of formula companies and hold them to account. It's easy to forget that these are companies who exist to make money; they aren't charitable organisations helping people to feed their babies. They strive to make profit and to gain customers, like any business. But given the product they make, they deserve more scrutiny than most.

People get it all wrong they see headlines like this and think it is an attack on FF mums. It is not (a lot of bf mums have used formula too.) Formula is a life saver, however. Formula companies have the worst rep. They are always breaking rules. Does one think that a MW should be informed on feeding by a formula company?? Does one not think that is going to course bias. Because that's the reality in the UK. Look up baby milk action and Tigers to find out about what is happening in the Philippines and India. America didn,t want to sign up to the milk marketing laws, because he wants to allow companies to push their products but at what cost?

Tbf before the title was changed by MNHQ it read something like 'non breastfeed babies have a 14 x more risk of dying according WHO statistic', that is what I imagine a lot of the ' defensive' comments are referring to as it just looked like click bait.

I'm not convinced a one size fits all approach to BF promotion is a good idea. Obviously the issues in poor countries such as lack of clean water, fuel for boiling it, lights for seeing what you are doing in the dark aren't relevant to everyone.

That said formula companies have a long history of unethical behaviour and should be tightly controlled. I think they should also ban follow up milk adverts.

I have a book called "gentle mothering" and it does say about cosleeping and breastfeeding may actually be safer because they found mother's to be much more alert.

The doc said basically the same thing. That when the baby sleeps on your breast you're linked and so move together. It also said ff babies go into a deeper sleep and because not on the breast you're less aware it's there.

They also said that formula compaines influence maternity wards to discourage bf. Apparently its the formula companies that encourage babies to be kept apart from mums in America.