to think MN shouldn't support boots co-advertising newborn bottle sets and "follow on" milk

[ICBINEG]

when there's a national campaign on to promote BF?

Presumably this advert passes the letter of the law regarding the non-advertising/non-special offers on formula for new born's but it defies the spirit in every way possible.

AIBU to expect a little more social responsibility from MN?

Agree would be better low cost. Some GPs would be arses over it if you had to "prove" medical need.

Yes, I am on gnome support [steiner emoticon]

I just got birth to five btw.

Yep they stock it at the gp practice where I used to work. People just hand over their milk tokens. I'm not sure if you can hand them in to supermarkets now though?

Plus if I get the same appalling level of help with bf this time I'm getting video evidence for you tiktok.

As well as making a complaint.

Arf, Green

I found the support wasn't bad at all last time, except for one of the hcps on nicu. I think she was just crap full stop though

With my first son, there we loads of staff in the maternity ward to help with breastfeeding.... So I would just keep buzzing and they would come and help. With DS2 there was no one, in my little cubicle of four I was the only one till breastfeeding in the morning. No support at all. Very sad. Cut backs again I suppose.

Mine was incredible, for all the wrong reasons. I did get a three cocking week stay though so they all had plenty of time to be crap.

Hope it's changed for the better now!

If your on income support (or working tax credits I think?) you get £7 ish a week in healthy start vouchers for under 1s and half that for 1-5 year olds.

I think maternity services have been cut dramatically I have a nearly 20 yr old and even though I didnt BF in the end I did try and there was loads of support in the ward now mums are turfed out straight after I didnt BF dd2 at all she was in scbu I couldve expressed the offered , but now new mums are turfed out as soon as they give birth, Im not saying women should stay in hospital but i do think a day or so for some support would do them good

Breast feeding isn't for everyone - some cannot do it and some do not want to. Breast feeding is promoted so formula feeding should also be allowed to be promoted - it does say on all formula tubs that basically breast is best. I switched to formula feeding because I couldn't breast feed not because I saw a formula advert. I've never heard of formula feeding doing a baby any harm

When my mil was on hospital they stayed a week and the midwives leg them all sunbathe outside and gave them a shout if the baby woke up.

I was in for 3 weeks last time, it was the most miserable time I've ever had

Why should formula be promoted, Mammy? It's not like an election with sides*, and where each has the right to the same amount of airspace for their party political broadcasts

*Although you'd think it was sometimes on boards link MN

There is a cottage hospital in my area where women didn't have to leave until BF had been established (I assume there was some kind of limit - 6 months would be pushing it!). This was going on 12 years ago, but I have no idea what the situation is now.

MammytoM, formula feed is associated with risks that are not associated with breast feeding.

Formula milk has been promoted with a lot of truth stretching in the past. Formula companies have vast advertising budgets. Breast feeding has declined a lot.

But as you say, each to their own as long as we get the chance to be educated about both ways of feeding our babies.

I don't think they're trying to persuade anyone to FF, I think they're promoting it to help those who choose not to or are unable to BF. Why is that wrong? They don't say 'This is the better way to feed your child!!', they just make women aware that the other option is there and shouldn't be something to be ashamed of.

Are you serious? You think Nestle & co are advertising just for those who are unable to BF, "just to make women aware that the other option is there"?

How unbelievably naive people are about advertising! Do you think advertising would be one of the most lucrative industries around if it didn't affect people's choices?

Advertising creates needs that were not there before (not referring to formula milk). Advertising formula, even while calling it "follow-on milk" is bad IMO - why do you think the vast majority of mothers in Britain FF? Because of effective formula advertising since the 1960s, that's why.

And for the poster who said that their children like follow-on milk "but won't drink cow's milk", formula milk is cow's milk.

But the initial thread was about advertising promoting ff and having done both ff and bf I can't imagine that has any impact whatsoever on a woman's decision how to feed and can only be beneficial for those who have to or choose to ff.
I bf all my eldest but then unfortunately couldn't the two youngest.
I felt a bit lost trying to find out about ff because of lack of information and even the feeding specialist I saw for dd2 couldn't give much guidance due to breast is best policies.
Nobody disputes that breast milk is the best for a baby but that doesn't mean formula is bad or harmful just not as good.
If you do formula feed then surely an educated informed approach is the best thing and not knowing sod all because there is so little information or choice widely available.

an educated informed approach

Given to you by a company that is trying to sell you a product?

But ledkr that is what people are saying.

Information - real, factual, unbiased information - on formula should be widely available so that parents can make informed decisions.

Advertising does not provide much in the way of facts or comparisons, and is not exactly unbiased.

Parents in the position you were in deserve better than promotion of various very similar products with pseudo-scientific claims. That doesn't help anyone make an informed choice.

Formula companies should not be allowed to advertise full stop.

Everyone knows there is an alternative to breastfeeding, seeing as the majority of babies in the UK are formula fed.

Follow-on milk is also an utter con, and only exists for these bloody companies to get around the WHO guidelines prohibiting them from advertising first stage formula.

YABU, midwives, hv's and GP's are being encouraged to be more understanding towards new Mums who can't/won't breastfeed as such negative pressure on non breast feeding mothers has been cited to contribute to PND. We all know that these products exsist so why can't they advertise just like any other product?

Take for example what I said upthread about Aptamil and their much-trumpeted 'IMMUNOFORTIS'.

What exactly is it? Where is it derived from? What does it do? What other effects might it have? Is it vegetarian? Does it contain allergens? is it genetically modified? Is it in other formulas under a different made up name? How was it tested and did those tests prove a measurable benefit?

I'd want to know all of that and more before choosing to feed something to a tiny baby, but as things stands, all you get from the company is a hazy blue glow around a few babies and some psuedo-science about internal defences. That's not much to go on and it certainly isn't very factual or helpful when trying to make a choice.

marrisnne re read my post. I could get no info on it even from non advertisements and I would like to read advertisements on the different bottles and sterilisers the same as when I breast fed I looked at ads for pumps pads and nursing bras.
Did you all buy your prams based on non promotional material?