I know it's illegal but is it worth reporting?

[Itscurtainsforyou]

Just seen a fb discussion about someone finding discounted "stage 1" baby formula at a supermarket. They reported it to the manager and told them it was against the law to discount baby formula. They said that the manager just returned the formula to the discount shelf.

There have been several comments about how this should be taken further and reported to various pro-breastfeeding groups/companies and the supermarket be boycotted.

I have no axe to grind re formula/breastfeeding, having done both. But my initial thought was that this response was a bit over the top - Aibu?

I am. I'm recognising that there's zero evidence to suggest it's effective at all. Despite all these rules, the UK still has the lowest breast feeding rates in the world.

It's because initiating breastfeeding isn't always handled well professionally, because work patterns in this country make breast feeding difficult, because it's easier for dad to feed with formula at night than for mum to pump so he can do it, public attitudes aren't great, people feel embarrassed to do it.

So why aren't we supporting mums to do it? Why instead have we gone down the route of making it financially more difficult for mums who haven't had the support to do it?

I would report it to trading standards, but not make a song and dance about it on FB

I think some people just like to stir up trouble. I'd be interested to know why it was discounted though.

Thanks for the explanation, GetOutOfMyGarden. My son is 15 now, but when he was little the cost of formula was an additional financial pressure I could have well done without. I was able to buy formula at the local health clinic, but it was still expensive.

And yeah, I don't believe anyone is going to stop breastfeeding because they notice some discounted formula at the supermarket. No matter how much formula is discounted it is still more expensive than breast milk!

I suspect Getout, £10 is the price of formula. End of. So they're not permitted to discount it occasionally by a £1 or whatever. It's still a £10 product that 95% of the time people pay full price for.

Is discounting brest milk encouraging the use of baby formula or is selling formula at high pricess punishing parents for taking the wrong free choice? Is it an attack on the free choice of patenting? Surely any parent will chose what is be best for their situation whether discounted or not?

And just from a personal point of view as a man who was raising an infant on my own it doesn't seem fair that I should have to pay high state enforced prices on baby formula? Finances are hard enough when your working full time, have another school aged child and no support of the mother. It's not like breast feeding was an option to (due to biological differences and all). Or am I just a lazy, failiure of a parent for not finding a way to make my nipples lactate?

I think it’s ridiculous it cannot be discounted, put on offer or even advertised - they act like it’s some kind of evil.

Formula is expensive, I don’t see how advertising it will make people suddenly decide to not BF.

If I could have BF, I wouldn’t be spending £15 a week on formula!

Formula feeding isn't going away. It's a perfectly safe and healthy way to feed your baby. Not discounting it or advertising it isn't going to change anything. And nor should it.

As parents we make choices everyday for our children, what to feed them, what they wear, if they are going to be vegetarian or not. I can't see anything different about feeding a baby.

I have grandmothers, a mother, 5 sisters, and 9 nieces (who now have their own children) and not one of them breastfed their children ever. I was the only person in that huge family of females that breastfed. And they are by no means unusual.

The majority of women have made up their minds about how they are going to feed their baby a long time before they actually have to decide.

KarateKitten but there's no minimum pricing on formula milk. I've just peeked at Tesco, Apatmil stage one is £11, Cow and Gate is £9. I'd be fine with advertising being banned completely, because then formula could go down to about £6 a box with that taken out of the cost.

However, reductions due to short remaining shelf life should not be illegal IMO. They are exceptionally limited sales by nature, they're not being used as loss leaders. The only people who will buy from them are already formula feeding.

Meh! If it's being discussed on Facebook, some busybody will already have reported the supermarket by now.

You won’t get a balanced response on MN as posters generally think ‘minor’ law breaking is absolutely fine

Oh ffs I wish women were free to choose the best option for themselves and their babies without it being such an emotionally loaded topic.

I hate that some mothers feel judged and criticized for not breastfeeding.

Food poverty is growing like knotweed through UK society. There are probably a large amount of mothers with small babies who could do with saving money on discounted formula.

If I remember correctly, I think you can't use supermarket loyalty card vouchers to buy formula either? I think that's really wrong too.

There are women relying on food banks - it's not a stretch to think their diet might not be rich enough in nutrients or calories to allow for a plentiful supply of breast milk Discounted or BOGOF formula or being able to spend supermarket vouchers on it could really help. I know it's not good enough and it's unacceptable that there are women slipping into malnourished states, but that's the reality of the world we're in.

The government don't set the pricing, the manufacturer does! They are simply not permitted to discount it.

And why on earth would the manufacturer sell it to people cheaper than they have to? I don't know why you all think it would get cheaper, other than maybe the odd discount but far more likely they would push up the price and then pretend it was discounted to the price they want to sell it at, which is what it costs now.

Food poverty is growing like knotweed through UK society. There are probably a large amount of mothers with small babies who could do with saving money on discounted formula.

Exactly and as PPs have said, no-one is going to decide to formula feed over breastfeeding, on the off chance Sainsbo's might knock the odd quid off now and again.

Getout, correct me if I'm wrong but advertising is banned completely. You will not get some advertising budget taken out of the cost of your milk.

The only advertising permitted is for follow on milk. Not formula for babies.

I’m as lactivisty as they come and I understand the reasons behind the ban on advertising of stage 1 formula, and I support it. But I also see on FB group people reporting a yellow sticker on a tin of stage 1 formula to the manager in a condescending rage, and I just think how embarrassing it is. What is it to them if someone buys a cheaper tin of formula?! People like that do breastfeeding no favours at all.

They wouldn't though. Without all that advertising, they'd need to be making formula feeding attractive in other ways such as price. Things like 'hungry' milks, people thinking Aptamil being better than Cow and Gate despite no brand having been shown to be better, 'follow on' milk would drop, since these are the shitey bits that are produced by advertising.

Sorry Worra but I disagree. The hospitals and HVPs cannot compete with £20million a year spending on advertising. Advertising works. It works really well. And you will find that many of those people who would have breastfed use formula because it becomes ingrained with all the messages that £20m would buy.

So much for free choice by mothers if they were permitted to advertise and promote....

I was lucky and exclusively bf for a long long time but if someone wants to ff then I don't see why they should be financially penalised.

In reality no a discounted tub of formula in a UK supermarket is unlikely to do damage either to breastfeeding rates or formula fed babies.

However the code is international and exists for the protection of all babies. It has to cover even things which are mostly harmless such as this because that way they can block much more insidious marketing techniques.

Techniques like sales reps who dress in similar costume to HCP uniforms and market formula in hospitals and clinics to new mothers as a "scientifically better solution". Seems unbelievable but used to happen here. Techniques like delivering free samples of formula to mothers, whole cans, so that when you're struggling in the first few weeks of BF it's just handily there in the cupboard. This happens today in the US.

Techniques like offering free samples of "scientific" formula to mothers in developing countries with very low levels of education and literacy, giving them enough for their milk supply to dry up and then charging them full price and profiting while babies starve. The mothers can't afford the formula so they use dried whole milk or water down the formula to eke it out. This has happened. It still happens.

A 5% discount on a full price tin of formula in Tesco is not a problem but these other marketing techniques and things like them are definitely a problem. The issue is you can't just say well ban all of those practices but not this one because this one is definitely not harmful and I like it. It's easier and more effective to prohibit all of them in order to prevent the worst offenders. Even the free formula tin samples in the US are just an extended version of a discount.

If you block some practices but not others the companies find ways around and loopholes in the law. Another issue is that the line is often crossed anyway. When the line is drawn right next to practices which are harmful you end up with harmful breaches occurring. Currently we get plenty of breaches but they are all in the harmless zone so it doesn't matter too much, but it does mean that we need to uphold them. It happens fairly regularly with TV ads - a company will make a spurious claim or add a slogan which it is then later asked to retract, and it does, but the image has still stuck with people. If I asked you which formula is closest to breastmilk, you all know which formula company claimed that - that was illegal, because no formula is closer to breastmilk than any other, yet the message persists. If I asked you which formula provides as much calcium as a giant comedy beaker of cow's milk, you know which brand I'm talking about - that advert was illegal too, as it contained misleading information.

Cherry I agree with you. And I'm trying to make the point that they've missed the point of the whole ban by getting on their high horses and going after a smalltime supermarket that has broken the rule.

Thank you Bertie, you've articulated where I've struggled.

I'm a bit on the fence with this. While I do think a proportion (small, maybe) of people might be swayed by advertising, I'm not sure that trumps the needs of very low income families to have access to formula without somebody else in the family having to go hungry. I would also hate to think of FF babies getting watered-down formula due to the cost. I would be surprised if discounting due to short shelf-life would have a great effect one way or the other.

I wouldn't report, personally.

Oh, and bananas will never win over chocolate, because chocolate is far, far yummier! Nowt to do with advertising.

Karate where did I mention advertising?

Read my post again.

I (and the OP) are talking about discounting formula.

Knocking the odd pound off here and there is never going to make a mother choose to FF over BF, considering BF is 100% free anyway.

Is it a new thing, the not being able to advertise?

I definitely remember tv ads for Aptamil and Cow & Gate milk formula in Ireland a few years ago.