AIBU to be shocked at

[MrSpoc]

Just found out that large retail chaines, i.e Tesco, boots do not give you reward points if you buy formula milk.

Apprarantly its because they think it is un ethical? and want to promote Breast is best

are those other products the child's only source of food for teh first 6 months of it's life?

LadyintheRadiator - the points is not the issue as you can clearly tell. it is the exclusion because you are FF and being made to feel you have done the wrong thing.

there is nothing wrong with formula and thousands of children have grew up on it and have no problams. yes BF is best but there is a afe alternitive for those who cant and should not be made to feel bad because of this.

OhForBoonessSake if this particular brand is not safe then they should go to a shop that supplies it. Simples. if the parent used it anyway in order to get points then they are stupid and should be done for niglect if it is unsafe for thier child and they knew about it.

There are loads of shops i have been to that just stock SMA and Cow & gate when we have Aptimal. we just go to another shop.

I really can't believe that you find this quite shocking, they are just points after all

It's the same with Boots points too.

It is the law, you'll get your points when your Lo reaches 6 months..

Why would anyone feel that feeding their baby formula is wrong just because Tesco won't give them points?

but the thing is mrspoc is that some people, are actually not very clever at all and would consider the value of the points to be more important than the sickness caused by the wrong formula. tesco et all cater for all levels of intellect and as such can not be seen to be responsible for a parent choosing on brand of formula over another. by offering points on formula, the would indeed be offering a reward for people to choose the product they offer.

Noone is pointing and laughing at the till, you are just not entitled to loyalty points for one product. The only person that feels bad is you, I can't think clubcard points made you feel bad. If you chose not to or couldn't bf it's no big deal, Tesco can't change that.

YANBU. How many people are going to switch to formula feeding just so they can get a few Clubcard points?

and it would amaze you how stupid even educted, intelligent people can be when it comes to feeding their babies. i have seen it first hand and have sported the [confused[ look when hearing their justifications for why they do the particular thing they do. baby rice in a one day old's bottle for example, and this from two highly educated parents.

"to me the offer points as a way of getting customers to shop with them."

Well, exactly, and big multinational orgnisation have a long history of using a wide range of marketing and promotional techniques to make money out of the consumer no matter whether it is in the consumers best interest or not. And this ban on points as a promotion is not to send a signal to the CONSUMER that formula is bad, but because given a free rein, the babymilk cmpanies would definitely market it aggressively and try and claim the bf share of the market for thier formula. We know this because of what happened from the 1950s onwards, and because of the shameful track record of Nestle across the developing world.

I a sorry that your wife found herself unable to bf when that would have been her preference, but try not to take this issue of formula not being the basis for marketing rewards personally, or as a slur on women like her, but a way to prevent massive multinationals using thier marketing power to turn women and babies onto cash cows.

MrSpoc, I don't think you need any more 'penilising'. You are definitely penile enough.

but does no one else see that the goverment are basicly saying although we allow the sale of these iteams we feel that it is unethical so are not allowing shops to offer reward points.

this is the underline message that is being given to people.

Ok i understand and agree that promoting the product could be wrong and temp people away from BF but in terms of the points they are given with every product except the ones the goverment have pressure from certain groups. so therefore it would not be promoting the product in this case. Yes BOGOF offers would be a step too far.

LadyintheRadiator-be careful he might start asking you how it feels 'to sit so high on your horse'

The difficulty isn't that people might switch for points, it is that loyalty points are effectively a marketing tool, a promotion. Therefore banned when it comes to formula, they can't have a different ruling for different types of promotion. Just by creating follow on milk the formula companies have created something unnecessary that they can legally promote to help build their brand name, they are smart enough to find ways round legislature so things have to be tight and straightforward, unambiguous.

Mr Spoc whilst I disagree with you I can see why at a vulnerable time your wife might see this as a sly jibe. I am a breastfeeding peer supporter and so fairly opinionated on the subject, but truly feel that if your wife did her best but no no avail she has nothing to feel guilty about. Hopefully these feelings will pass for her, we all do what is beat for our children, and should feel no guilt for that.

mr spoc can you answer my most recent post please?

vanity when people feel the need to nic pic peoples grammer and/or spelling all it does is show you up to be a bit of a nob.

Lady just has different opinions to me and i appreciate that but at least she does not lower herself inorder to try and make her points.

You just lowered yourself by calling me a 'nob'.

OhForBoonessSake - there was nothing to answer, not sure why anyone would be giving baby rice in a bottle, but hopefully you educated them in their error.

What people do forget is no matter how educated you are, if you have not had kids, or been around kids, how do you know what to do? this is where it is important to offer advice and the whole point of HV.

Clearly your firends where in this brackett.

no i said you have shown yourself to be a nob.