To be annoyed at Boots or at least the lady who works there

[Chocoholism]

Buying some cow and gate stage 1 formula for my 6 month old and asked if I could pay with points on my advantage card, her response was no you can't as we like to promote breastfeeding.
Err how does giving points or redeeming points when buying a stage 1 formula affect a decision on whether to breast feed or not? And also I could've adhered to doh guidelines and bf to 6 months and then changed to formula.
Is this a silly rule? The amount of milk we get through, and the money I give to boots makes me feel like I am as entitled to receive points as much as anyone else for any other products.

Actually, Nazi comparisons do offend me because it's very recent history for my family, and the tremors are still being felt. But I don't expect the world to tiptoe around my feelings, or at least not that much.

However, people who drag the Nazis into every conversation about differing opinions or public health policy are very, very tedious indeed. They seem to think it wins the argument, perhaps that it makes the rest of us think, "Oh wow, I never thought of it like that! You're right - not getting Advantage points in Boots when buying formula is JUST like having your head shaved and being shoved along with your kids into a gas chamber!"

Has anybody, anywhere, ever changed their mind as a result of being compared to a Nazi?

The people we should all really be annoyed with are Cow and Gate themselves as the reason the formula has gone up to £8.69 is because of the incredible amount of money they spend on advertising their product.

There is no need to advertise formula however they spend a fortune doing so and parents who formula feed by choice or circumstance pay for it. If they cut the advertising budget formula would cost about £2 a tin, as it should. If it cost £2 a tin, promotions would be irrelevant as it would be affordable to everyone who wanted it.

Well advertising actual formula formula (erm can't think of the term) is also illegal, so the companies chuck their mahoosive advertising budgets at follow-on milks. We could all quite safely boycott those.

They were only introduced, what, ten years ago? More or less their whole existence is a marketing ploy to cross-promote baby formula.

Some of the breastfeeding promotion seems to be at the expense of supporting those who have to (or choose to) bottle feed. I had to ask my mum for help in making up bottles when we brought my baby home; I'd planned to breastfeed but bought bottles and formula just in case. Cue a baby who doesn't latch on at all despite plenty of encouragement, boobs that didn't make anywhere near enough colostrum to be worth expressing, and there I am - left to get on with it because part of not being able to promote breastfeeding also includes not being able to teach women how to prepare it if they need a little extra help, or to advise them on whether they're doing it right, apparently.

What's wrong with a bit of fairness, rather than having breastfeeding mums paraded above us like the unattainable holy grail, and being made to feel inadequate - and people only need to read some of the anecdotes on this thread to see that it happens.

I think this is the reason I get a bit irritated by bf threads complaining about what a hard time they get. I was bullied by my health visitor to continue bf when it was clear it wasn't working, I was depressed and was at risk of not bonding.

She refused to give me any advice about formula. I don't mean reccommending one over another but any practical advice at all. She and the NCT feeding counsellor went out of their way to be unhelpful, judgemental and to make sure they knew I thought I was selfish.

Sorry I knew they thought I was selfish.

Women deserve freedom of choice not pressure by huge multinational companies

mrstigs but it's perfectly acceptable for a paid health professional who is supposed to have ypur and your baby's interests at heart and an NCT counsellor to bully and frankly insult me if my circumstances don't fit their rosy view of the world?

The idiot woman from the NCT actually told me every woman can bf I wasn't trying hatd enough.

I hope you told the NCT about her idiotic tendencies. It's not too late to provide feedback (unless the baby is now paying a mortgage maybe)

Precisely what jaggythistle and stargirl said. It is not a shit law, and it is not there to push breastfeeding in peoples faces. it is in place to protect vulnerable new mums from aggressive over-marketing by formula companies.

You can weigh the pros and cons of many laws, whether it be health and safety legislation, or laws on formula promotion. At the end of the day it is far better to protect the majority of vulnerable mothers from formula companies money grabbing profiteering than to worry about professionally offended people who think their entitlement to loyalty points is more important.

Fideline no I didn't give feedback. I was not in a condition where standing up for myself was an option. It's far too late now but I will never forgive her or my health visitor for the way they treated me. I was a second class person as far as they were concerned.

Pork my health visitor and NCT counsellor interpreted their roles to mean they were entitled to refuse to give me any advice unless it related to breastfeeding.

You're not being penalised by using formula and not getting some Advantage points. You are being penalised already by having to spend £40 a month on Formula, but you don't complain to the formula companies about that.

They are just Advantage points. They're not a god given right. You are not being discriminated against. That isn't Discrimination. It's just a store loyalty card. Get over it.

I wasn't answering you Phaedra, I was answering the OP's question.

It is very sad that some health professionals interpret the law incorrectly, and there should be appropriate support for anyone bottle feeding. That is an entirely different matter to a law preventing commercial promotion of formula.

You knowPork I think I got more information from the much derided and despised Bounty Pack (which wasn't given in hospital but collected from Boots a few weeks later) than I got from the health visitor or the NCT.

I had been given a couple of electronic steam sterilisers which were brilliant. I remember asking how long the bottles would remain sterile once they had been steamed if left in the unit. HV could have said I don't know but she refused to discuss it.

I was fully prepared to come on and say yanbu as I despise boots and ime their staff are utter shit. (Apologies to any boots staff who on here aren't utter shit, hence me saying ime)
However, the thing about the law and incentives and stuff on formula I did know, so regrettably I have to say YABU. But I'm sure the staff member could have been more diplomatic and less of a cow. They must be trained that way though

The NCT itself is not keen on fascism amongst its group leaders. I do appreciate the point that this stuff tends to happen in the year of your life when you are least likely to get bolshy about things.

Yes you are captainbarnacle I agree you're being penalised by having to pay in the first place but that is what it is. We all know hreastmilk is free and formula isn't.

Not getting points on an essential purchase of (for me) £40 a month is a huge deal. I didn't go into ff to make money (HA) and as soon as my boy was 12 months I dropped the formula but in the meantime my child needed feeding. Now he also needs feeding and I could feed him mars bars and coke with gay abandon if I chose to yet I can rake in the points regardless.

Those formula points would have helped him too. It isn't a promotion (it's the same on any other purchases, except gambling, smoking and legal tender) it isn't advertising (spend 9.99 a week on this, well better than free boob milk and you'll get 9 points isn't the best offer I've ever seen) and it has no impact whatsoever on breastfeeding.

It IS a shit law. There are no redeeming qualities whatsoever but there are plenty to make ff mothers feel like cunts at the most vulnerable time in their lives. Nice work WHO.

There's a huge lack of commas and an abundance of colloquialisms (eg well better) there so apologies. Hope you get my drift.

I spent all my clubcard points on cider. Maybe the points police are saving me from myself. :D

The law isn't to promote breastfeeding, it's to protect formula feeders from the aggressive tactics of formula companies.

There is nothing to stop formula companies permanently dropping the price of milk, it just stops temporary reductions to draw people in before putting the price back up.

If you knew how these companies behave in unrestricted markets you would understand why these laws are necessary. Why on earth do you think people boycott Nestle?

Information about Nestle's actions:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestlé_boycott

General practices of the formula companies:

iinformedparenting.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/15-tricks-of-formula-companies.html?m=1

We need these laws.

Agree very much with moomin , new mothers are left helpless in how to prepare a bottle of formula correctly in a properly sterilised bottle. I was lucky I was staying with my mum ( who had ff)after breast feeding didn't work for us and I sat and cried about failing to feed my baby. Me and DH didn't have the first clue. Women need educating on both methods of feeding.

I know it's not relevant to the OP but I think it is still a massively important point.

If you need help with formula feeding, you can just ask your Midwife or Health Visitor, or search the NHS website for their information/leaflets.