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?

sounds like you are short of something to do .Think of people who can't or don't want to bf struggling on mat pay this would be a great help.In this day and age shouldn't people be able to make there own decision stupid law

I agree with the law as it is and I hope I'd have enough time when shopping to go and find the manager and point to his guilty ways. Nowadays I avoid the baby aisles and have no idea how much nappies and tins are anymore. Child Benefit should help with the costs.

What a stupid law. When DS1 ended up in hospital severely jaundiced and dehydrated because I wasn't producing enough milk, the cost of formula didn't even enter my head...he needed it and that was that.

Actually, the ban on discounting/loyalty points is two fold: firstly, they don't want to encourage formula feeding and make it seem financially cheap, and secondly, they don't want parents brand-hopping week to week to whichever one is on offer at the time as that could upset the baby's tummy.

The brand's are all different prices though cwg aldi even now have their own brand at about £7 a tub - looks like aptamil.
My mil didn't bf any if her 4 as she was advised that formula was better than bm due to all its added vitamins and minerals. That was in 70s England and she pushed this on to me when pregnant, saying the nurses told her it and they knew what they were talking about - advertising does make a difference to people's opinions.

Ref the op though, I couldn't get worked up about a couple of reduced tubs - especially since, as previously stated, the brands are all differently priced anyway.

Subsidies on breast pumps would be a better move.

This.

I am someone who bf all my babies for longer than most, but I certainly don't feel that gives me the right to have an opinion on what others do. Breastfeeding is free Ffs.
How on earth does discounting formula do anything other than help someone who has started to ff their baby anyway?
By all means promote the benefits of breast feeding, but once the decision's been made then leave women alone! Stop making people feel bad. Become a bf councillor if you want to actually be helpful.

Free breast pumps would help too!

Discounting formula will encourage brand hopping to whichever has the best offer - not great for babies.

Discounting formula will encourage people to stockpile short dated formula - again, not great for babies.

It is the baby that matters.

It's ridiculous to not discount baby formula. Some people have no choice re bf/ff. I myself struggled to bf ds2 - he lost 15% of his birthweight in 3 weeks so I had to (still do) top up with a formula feed as it took 7 hours(!) to express 40ml.

My friend works for a well known retail store and they have to dispose of formula once it has 3 months until its use by date.
Instead, her and her manager take it to the local baby bank to be donated.

Breastfeeding is more or less free, so how would discounting formula be an incentive for BF mums to switch? They'd still be paying more! I've BF and FF, I don't care what people do, but that argument just doesn't make sense.

Yanbu

The idea that a breastfeeding mother would go into a shop and think 'oooh there's 50p off this tin of formula, time to switch' is just

I have no issues that breast is best, but utlimately it's the woman's body and that trumps everything to me. Treating formula in the same way as fags is completely wrong imo.

I was so determined to BF DS2, but after being stuck to my boob for 5 hours after he was born and getting absolutely nothing the hospital gave me formula.

When I got home I tried and tried to BF (I even made a threas on MN for help) and couldn't. I cried for weeks when making up bottles using formula as I felt like such a failure. My boobs had bugger all, they neber got bigger, milk never came in and poor DS2 would have starved.

Having £1-£2 knocked off the tin of Aptamil every now and then was not going to sway me in to formula feeding from the get go. Now I'm £40-£50 a month just to keep my DS alive as my body didn't do what it should, plus the cost of numerous bottles, sterilisers, different teats and hassle of making the flipping things.

It is against the law, but the person concerned would just be best reporting it to head office it will be removed and manager dealt with much quicker than if they called trading standards

It's also pretty insulting to women I think in lots of ways.

I have reported it in Boots once.

I'm shocked at this. I had no idea it was illegal to discount formula!

Breastfeeding is more or less free, so how would discounting formula be an incentive for BF mums to switch? They'd still be paying more! I've BF and FF, I don't care what people do, but that argument just doesn't make sense.

I completely agree with this.

It's not an EU law, it's from the WHO code as far as I know.

I think it's just another example of do-gooders thinking that people (mothers) are too stupid to decide to feed their babies the right way. Are people really going to choose ff over bf because they get Advantage card points or whatever?

Such a nonsense.

Out of interest, is there VAT on breast pads and nursing bras and the like?

saying the nurses told her it and they knew what they were talking about - advertising does make a difference to people's opinions.

what nurses say is not advertising

You don't get advantage points for formula

Erm a low calorie diet does impact breastfeeding

I was anorexic when I give birth & produced nothing at all and it wouldn't be as easy for me to replace calories with eating cake

I'm a long time past buying formula but wasn't it always stage 1 milk that was not allowed to be discounted? I'm sure I saw loads of stage 3 milk cartons in the discount aisle recently

Presses too soon! Maybe it was a later stage one and they misread? I always thought formula rules were pretty strict

The reaction was completely OTT and she needs to get a life, which is probably what the manager was thinking when they put it back and walked off.

As far as I am aware this is intended to penalize companies not the consumer. Idea being that by making it harder for companies to spend extortionate amounts on promotion etc it helps keep costs lower overall, with the ideal being that it isn't viewed as a consumer product with lots of brands and brand personalities etc but a couple of standard formulae available much cheaper.

Of course it hasn't worked, all they do is create follow on milk etc to get them advert time on TV. 😂

So my understanding wasn't that the law makers don't trust consumers to make valid choices, but that they don't trust the companies to take the piss out of their customers, thereby pushing for a more standardised pricing system.

Obviously they don't want people jumping from product to product depending on price (I didn't think it had anything to do with discouraging formula use per se, more to discourage switching) but given that most of the formulae are so similar anyway that is a side concern really.